Chants of ‘Pilipinas!’ inspire Petecio

PARIS – Nesthy Petecio fought amidst non-stop chants of her name booming and echoing at the Paris North Arena Tuesday night.

She heard clearer and louder “Pilipinas! Pilipinas!” – a call she responded with an impressive display of skills, savvy and flamboyance on the way to a unanimous win over Indian Jaismine Lamboria in their 57kg Round-of-32 bout.

“Mas narinig ko Pilipinas,” said Petecio, with the chant sparking an adrenaline rush and fueling a juggernaut that easily carried the Tokyo silver winner to the next round.

“Iyon naman talaga ang inilalaban namin pag akyat sa ring. Pag lumabas kami pa ibang bansa, di pangalan ko ang dala-dala ko. Nakatatak sa dibdib ko (ang Pilipinas),” Petecio pointed out.

Petecio, visibly a more confident, better fighter from the Tokyo Games, put up a clinical performance, impressing not just the Filipino supporters but the entire arena.

So impressive was the Davaoeño fighter that she yielded merely two points to Lamboria.

Kazakh Termek Suiyenish, Korean Jongjin Kim and Estonia’s Jakov Peterson all made 30-27 verdicts while American Shawn Reese and Morocco’s Mouhsine Soulmi called it 29-28.

Petecio needs two more wins to crack the Top 4 for a sure medal.

The hands-down favorite in the upper bracket of the chart is Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Ting, one of two boxers disqualified from the world championships last year for gender eligibility issue but allowed to fight here.

Asked by a foreign journalist on her possible fight with the Taiwanese, Petecio expressed confidence of a win in case they do duke it out here.

Petecio has beaten Lin in their clash in Tokyo.