Petecio wins gold in 2013 China Open

August 17, 2013

Nesthy Petecio (left) and Josie Gabuco

NESTHY Petecio scored a unanimous win over New Zealand’s Alexis Pritchard to claim the women’s lightweight gold medal in the 2013 China Open International Boxing Tournament held at the Guizhou Gym in Guiyang.

The three judges gave a unanimous 3-0 verdict in favor of Petecio.

World Championships gold medallist Josie Gabuco, however, lost to Chinese boxer Xu Shiqi with an identical 3-0 decision in the women’s flyweight category.

Xu, however, had to resort to some crafty clinching and wrestling tactics to prevent Gabuco from delivering her punches.

The 26 year-old from Palawan, who defeated London Olympics silver medallist and three-time world champion Ren Cancan settled for silver.

The other silver medal came from the Air Force’s Junel Cantancio, 27, who lived up to his reputation as a punching machine. But he took more than he gave from power – punching Viacheslav Supinov of Russia to absorb a 3-0 defeat in the men’s lightweight division.

The bronze came from London Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga, who lost in the men’s light flyweight semifinals on Thursday.

The national boxing team assembled by the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) returned from China with one gold medal, two silvers and one bronze.

China led the medal tally with seven golds while Kazakhstan and Russia got two, and Mongolia and the Philippines earned one each. New Zealand had two silvers while India had one second-placer. Only Mauritius did not have a podium finish.

Other team members were Roldan Boncales (flyweight), Nico Magliquian (bantamweight) and Dennis Galvan (light welterweight) Coaches were Pat Gaspi, Roel Velasco and Elias Recaido Jr.