By Nick Giongco
The Philippines absorbed heartbreaking losses on Monday in the Asia-Oceania Olympic boxing tournament in Amman, Jordan.
Nesthy Petecio
Flyweight Carlo Paalam and women’s featherweight top seed Nesthy Petecio bowed to Amit Panghal of India and Sena Irie of Japan, respectively.
Paalam suffered a 4-1 decision loss in their quarterfinal duel and it was his third defeat to the Indian stretching back to the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
Carlo Paalam (in blue) (MB File Photo)
Petecio also dropped a similar verdict to Irie, who now holds two wins against a loss to her Filipino adversary in their head-to-head showdown.
Their losses came a day after Eumir Felix Marcial booked an Olympic berth following a victory in his middleweight quarterfinals bout with a Mongolian.
With the early exit of feather Ian Clark Bautista and welter James Palicte and Paalam and Petecio’s defeats, only two Filipinos are in the running for an Olympic slot.
Seeing action later are fly Irish Magno and lightweight Riza Pasuit.
Those who don’t make the Olympic grade in Jordan will have one last chance to do so when Paris hosts the World Qualification tournament in mid-May.