Make or Break Day for PH Olympic Spots Viers
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 09 Mar 2020
Nesthy Petecio.
It is a make or break day today, March 9 for four Filipino fighters, including World Championship winner Nesthy Petecio vying to notch automatic spots in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic boxing tournament as they take on separate opponents in the ongoing Asia Oceania qualifying tournament at the Prince Hamzeh Hall in Amman, Jordan.
Petecio will take on a familiar foe in Japan's Sena Irie whom she had defeated in the worlds last year for one of the four regional Olympic spots reserved in the women's featherweight division.
Petecio beats Krismi Langkapurayalage of Sri Lanka, 5-0 in her opening assignment.
Remaining Filipino campaigner Carlo Paalam will also take on a familiar opponent in India's Amit Panghal for one of the six slots in men's flyweight class. Aside from beating Paalam in their previous meetings, Amit also held wins over defending Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan.
Paalam bested Ramish Ramani of Afghanistan to advance versus Amit.
Meanwhile two other Filipina boxers try to get automatic berth in the women's flyweight and lightweight classes.
Irish Magno takes on India's Chungnejiang Marykon for one of the six spots in the women's flyweight division while Risa Pasuit battles Shih Yi Wu of Chinese Taipei also for one of the six spots in the women's lightweight class.
Magno stopped Winnie Au Yin Yin of Hongkong while Pasuit defeated Saya Hamamato of Japan, 4-0.
Petecio cannot afford to drop this fight against Irie as the spot reserved in the women's featherweight is limited to just four.
Paalam and Magno can still vie for the remainder of the six slots in their respective weight divisions in the event they lose given the number of present competitors in the tournament.
Thus far, only Eumir Felix Marcial in the men's middleweight division has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics boxing following two successive convincing victories in Amman over Kirra Rustom of Australia and Bayamba Erdene Otgonbaatar of Mongolia.
Ian Clark Bautista who was forced to fight in the men's featherweight class after his natural weight class, bantamweight got scratched, was eliminated by familiar regional rival, Chatchai Butdee of Thailand recently. To his credit, Bautista won his opening assignment, besting former junior world champion Hayato Tsusumi of Japan.
James Palicte, last SEA Games gold winner in the light welterweight, fought as a lightweight in this tournament and was eliminated by Elnur Abduraimanov of Uzbekistan.
The country's campaign for Olympic slots has been affected by the non inclusion of the light flyweight, bantamweight and light welterweight classes in the Tokyo boxing event.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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