Lady Boxer Nesthy Petecio failed in her bid to qualify in the upcoming Rio Olympic Games after bowing out in her initial outing of the ongoing AIBA Women’s Boxing Championships on Saturday night in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Campaigning in the flyweight division, The 24-year-old Davao Del Sur native Petecio earned an opening round bye in this Olympic qualifier but was not enough to propel her to a victory when she lost to Morocco’s Zohra Ez Zahraoui via a split decision.
One judge had Petecio winning 40-35, while two judges called it a draw at 38-all. But the two judges eventually picked the Moroccan fighter as the winner.
“Nesthy allowed the fight to get close and she slipped twice in the fourth round. Unfortunately, the two judges who called it a draw chose the Moroccan when asked to pick a winner, probably recalling the slips in the last round,” said Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) Executive Director Ed Picson.
Petecio was the country’s lone bet in the two Olympic qualifying tournaments after being chosen over Irish Magno and Josie Gabuco for the spot which was decided via box offs and several deliberations.
She failed to earn a berth the first time at the Asia Oceania Qualifying last March after losing in the quarterfinals.
This is the last Olympic qualifying tournament for female boxers.
Meanwhile, Josie Gabuco advanced in the second round of the 45-48kg light flyweight non-Olympic weight category after beating fourth seed Sevda Asenova of Bulgaria via split decision.
Gabuco will next face Belarus’ Volha Lushchyk, who won via split decision over Argentina’s Jazmin Gala Vilarino.