Nancy Petecio continues her storybook run on the road to an Olympic medal. The first quarterfinal bout of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics ends with Philippines’ Petecio defeating Colombia’s Yeni Marcela Arias by unanimous decision to advance to the final four of the women’s featherweight bracket.
Scores were 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 and 29-28 for Petecio, whose three tournament wins including her eliminating number-one seed Yu-Ting Lin (South Korea) on Monday to advance to this point.
Petecio has grown accustomed to dictating the pace in each of her two wins earlier in competition. The Filipino southpaw found herself playing the role of boxer and counterpuncher, however, against the naturally aggressive Arias who threw every punch with knockout intentions.
Petecio was able to land enough left hands and avoid any damaging shots in return to sweep the opening round. Arias successfully cut off the ring and forced Petecio on the defensive in a second round that saw three of the five judges score in favor of the Colombian.
With the fight on the table, Arias constantly charged forward in the third and final round. It led to frequent clinches and soft warnings from referee Simali Mokretari to both fighters to keep it clean. Arias landed an overhand right in the final minute while Petecio was the busier fighter.
Activity won out, with four of the five judges scoring the final round for Petecio, who becomes the first ever female featherweight to advance to the medal round of the Olympics.
Petecio will next face Italy’s Testa, who proved too much for Canada’s Caroline Veyre in a lopsided unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Testa is the only Italian female boxer to compete in the Olympics, having advanced to the quarterfinals of 2016 Rio only to lose to eventual Gold medalist Estelle Mossely. Experience has proven valuable for Testa, whose height and natural strength has proven troublesome for the featherweight field.
The tall and lean Italian boxed at times, keeping Veyre at the end of her long jab though also landed several clean right hands in a dominant opening round. Testa never strayed from the script, jabbing from the outside and following with clean lefts to keep Veyre at bay.
Veyre enjoyed a better round three, though needed a knockout to win by that point. It never came close to happening, as Testa extends a brilliant run that including her ousting number-two seed Michaela Walsh (Ireland) two nights ago.
Petecio and Testa will meet Saturday afternoon.
Also scheduled:
Karriss Artingstall (Great Britain) vs. Skye Nicolson (Australia)
Maria Claudia Nechita (Romania) vs. Sena Irie (Japan).
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox