DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 October) – The new champion in the AIBA Women’s World Boxing featherweight division is a Mindanawon from Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur.
The 27-year old Nesthy Alcayde Petecio on Sunday won the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship in Ulan-Ude, Russia, less than 24 hours after 19-year old Carlos Yulo won the championship at the Artistic Gymnastics in Stuttgart, Germany.
She is the second Filipino boxer to win the gold after Josie Gabuco in 2012.
According to the website of the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the featherweight class was the most crowded weight class of the championships, with 36 athletes.
Petecio won against Russia’s Liudmila Vorontsova, 3-2. Five years earlier, in the 2014 AIBA tournament in Jeju, South Korea, Petecio lost to Russia’s Zinaida Dobrynina, 2-0 in the gold medal match.
GMA News 7 quoted Ricky Vargas, President of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) as saying that Petecio “deserved the win not only because she fought brilliantly but also because she sacrificed so much for this.”
“Am shedding tears of joy for her. Mabuhay ka, Nesthy!” GMA News 7 quoted him as saying.
Vargas also credited Petecio’s coaches Boy Velasco and Reynaldo Galido, ABAP’s head coach Pat Gaspi, including their foreign consultant Don Abnett for “a great job.”
In March this year, Petecio was honored as “Best Female Fighter” in the 19th Gabriel “Flash” Elorde Memorial Awards held at Okada Manila Grand Ballroom, for capturing the gold medal for the Philippines in the 1st Indian Open International Boxing Tournament held in February 2018.
Sun.Star Davao reported that Petecio also pocketed golds in the 2nd Kapolri Cup Boxing Tournament Open in Manado, Indonesia, on July 9, 2018, in the 10th International Boxing Tournament in Honor of Konstantin Korotkov in Russia in May 2018 and in XXXV International Felis Stamm Tournament for Elite Men and Women in Warsaw, Poland in March.
According to the Sun.Star report, Petecio did not expect the award because she was not included in the PSA (Philippine Sports Association) Awards.
It quoted the now Baguio City-based national boxing team mainstay as saying “Thanks to God og sa Elorde family kay ilaha gi-recognize ako mga achievements last year bisan wala ko naka-medal sa Asian Games (I thank God and the Elorde family for recognizing my achievements last year even if I did not win a medal in the Asian Games).”
Petecio on August 5 this year, posted on her FB page that “when the world says ‘give up,’ hope whispers ‘try it one more time.’”
Jeremiah Opiniano of the Batangas-based ‘The Filipino Connection’ in an article titled “Nesthy Petecio: Five years of heartaches, and a 2019 world championships gold medal” said Petecio’s silver medal in Jeju in 2014 gave her a chance to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympic games “but the succeeding years of world and Asian jousts were struggling moments” for Petecio. She did not make tit to the Rio Olympics, she lost in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon Korea, lost in the Asian Championships in China in 2015, in the 2017 Asian Championships, and in the 2018 Asian Games. (MindaNews)
