Olympics Day 9: Nesthy Petecio advances to semis, Arlen Lopez settles for bronze

Nesthy Petecio, seen at the 2023 World Championships. Photo from Petecio's Facebook

Aug

For the second straight Olympics, Nesthy Petecio will be leaving with a medal.

The 32-year-old from Davao City, Philippines cemented herself in history as the first boxer from her country to earn two Olympic medals after defeating China’s Xu Zichun by a 5-0 score in the quarterfinals of the women’s 57 kilogram competition at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.

Petecio, who earned silver at the Tokyo Games, will face Poland’s Julia Szeremeta on Wednesday, August 7 for a chance to return to the gold medal match once again. The relative upstart Szeremeta, 20, earned her spot in the semis by beating Puerto Rico’s Ashleyann Lozada Motta by a 5-0 decision.

Petecio established her dominance early on against the taller Xu, finding the angles to land her overhand left repeatedly. After sweeping the first round on all five cards, Petecio began to take advantage of Xu’s over-aggression, landing right hook counters as Xu advanced, while using her upper body movement to dodge incoming punches.

Down 20-18 on all five cards after two, Xu went for broke in the third, opening up with combinations to Petecio’s body and even throwing her to the floor in the opening minute. Even with the fight won, Petecio was content to exchange punches, landing sneaky left hands to the head and body and ripping uppercuts with both hands to turn back her opponent’s determined challenge.

Petecio is one of two Filipinas who will contend for medals as 50kg boxer Aira Villegas will face Turkey’s Buse Naz Çakıroğlu in the semifinals on Thursday.

Arlen Lopez, the Cuban Olympic legend, also will be going home with a medal but not the one he had hoped for.

The 31-year-old lost a razor thin 3-2 decision to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak in the 80kg semifinals, denying him a chance to become the third ever boxer to win three Olympic gold medals.

Khyzhniak, the 29-year-old silver medalist from the Tokyo Games, will face Kazakhstan’s Nurbek Oralbay in the gold medal match on Wednesday. Oralbay, 24, earned his spot with a similar 3-2 decision, defeating Cristian Pinales of the Dominican Republic.

Khyzhniak stuck to his trademark style of nonstop aggression, firing combination after combination at Lopez in the opening round as Lopez looked to counter back with single punches that packed more power. Lopez struggled to keep up with the pace of his Ukrainian foe, abandoning his typical box and move strategy, and opting to stick his chin inside and trade punches.

With the fight on the table heading into the third, Khyzhniak continued to push forward as Lopez began to show his fatigue under the constant barrage and body punching.

Khyzhniak and Lopez traded angrily towards the final bell, with Khyzhniak landing a punch just after the bell sounded, which drew the ire of Lopez, who glared at his opponent before returning to his corner.

Cuba, which has long been one of the absolute powerhouses of Olympic boxing, will have just one boxer fighting for gold in Paris as Erislandy Alvarez advanced to the 63.5kg gold medal match with a 5-0 decision over Georgia’s Lasha Guruli. He will face France’s Sofiane Oumiha, a three-time world champion and 2016 silver medalist, earned his spot in the gold medal match with a 4-1 decision over Canada’s Wyatt Sanford, who became the first Canadian boxer since David Defiagbon earned heavyweight silver to bring home an Olympic medal.

Full Results

Women’s 57kg – quarterfinals

Lin Yu Ting (TPE) 5-0 Svetlana Kamenova Staneva (BUL)

Esra Yildiz Kahraman (TUR) 4-1 Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu (BRA)

Nesthy Petecio (PHI) 5-0 Xu Zichun (CHN)

Julia Szeremeta (POL) 5-0 Ashleyann Lozada Motta (PUR)

Women’s 75kg – quarterfinals

Li Qian (CHN) 4-1 Lovlina Borgohain (IND)

Caitlin Parker (AUS) 4-1 Khadija Mardi (MAR)

Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba (EOR) 5-0 Davina Michel (FRA)

Atheyna Bibeichi Bylon (PAN) 3-2 Elzbieta Wojcik (POL)

Women’s 54kg – semifinals