Nesthy Petecio advances to boxing round-of-16 with dominant win

Team Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio celebrates after winning against India’s Jaismine in the women’s 57kg preliminaries round of 32 boxing match during the Paris Olympics 2024 at the North Paris Arena, in Villepinte on July 30, 2024. (Photo by MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

SCHEDULE: Team Philippines at Paris Olympics 2024

Team Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio toyed with Indian rival Jaismine in the 2024 Paris Olympics women’s 57-kilogram boxing tournament at past midnight Wednesday (Manila time), coasting in the final round to save something for her next bout.

Petecio advanced to the round-of-16, where she will face hometown bet and No. 3 seed Amina Zidani, who drew a bye in the opening round.

Switching stances, the unseeded Petecio kept Jaismine in check in the first two rounds, settling for accurate counter-punching against the Commonwealth Games and Asian championships standout to jump ahead in their bout.

The taller Indian attacked urgently in the last round, but Petecio held her ground and sealed the boud against Zidani, who is expected to be backed by a loud home crowd in their Saturday (Manila time) duel.

Petecio, the silver medalist in the Tokyo Olympics, will advance to the quarterfinals with a win over Zidani.

Three judges scored it 30-27 for Petecio while the other two had it 29-28, also for the Filipino.

Zidani is a European Games gold medalist in 2023 and also won a bronze in the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi.