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Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Boxing – Girls’s Featherweight – Final 32 – Kokugikan Area – Tokyo, Japan – July 24, 2021. Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines in motion towards Matshu Marcela Sakobi of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pool by way of REUTERS/Frank Franklin II
TOKYO, July 24 (Reuters) – Reigning world champion Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines took a primary step in the direction of maiden Olympic gold in ladies’s featherweight boxing on Saturday, with a unanimous resolution over Marcelat Sakobi Matshu of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 29-year-old Petecio is tipped as a powerful contender for the primary gold within the ladies’s featherweight class, which together with ladies’s welterweight, is making its debut on the Tokyo Olympics.
The Philippines has by no means gained an Olympic gold medal in any sport. Petecio delivered a convincing present towards Matshu as boxing preliminaries kicked off in a close to empty Kokugikan Area, the 7,300-seat Tokyo stadium often dwelling to sumo wrestling.
The addition of ladies’s weight courses was a welcome signal of extra gender equality in boxing, stated American featherweight Yarisel Ramirez, who misplaced her preliminary to Croatia’s Nikolina Cacic.
“The equality between each female and male has come a good distance,” Ramirez stated. “Extra ladies can compete now and yeah, I am grateful for whoever went on the market and pushed it by means of and made it occur.”
The 21-year-old, Cuban-born Ramirez got here again after shedding her first spherical to win the second and take the bout to a deciding spherical. However she stated she was a “a bit stunned” by the judges’ resolution.
“Clearly, the judges did not see it my manner,” she stated.
Transparency and gender equality are the highlights for boxing on the Tokyo Olympics as the game goals to show the web page on the acrimonious 2016 Video games which was marred by persistent disputes over judging high quality. read more
Within the featherweight males’s preliminaries, Eire’s Kurt Walker overcame a lower above his proper eye and a troublesome second spherical to take a unanimous resolution over Spaniard Jose Quiles Brotons.
The Irishman is because of combat prime seed Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov of Uzbekistan within the subsequent spherical.
“He is obtained two arms and two legs like myself so it does not trouble me,” Walker stated in regards to the 26-year-old world champion. “If you wish to be the very best then it’s important to beat the very best.”
Reporting by David Dolan; Modifying by Nick Mulvenney and Stephen Coates
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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