MANILA – Aira Villegas celebrated one of her most memorable birthdays with a unanimous decision triumph over Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria in the Paris Olympics women’s boxing 50kg Round of 16 early Friday, Aug. 2, 2024 (PH time), at the North Paris Arena.
She turned 29 on Aug. 1 and immediately arranged a quarterfinals match against France’s Wassila Lkhadiri. Their match is set Saturday at 3:20 a.m. (PH time).
Nesthy Petecio (women’s 57kg) was also scheduled to see action later Friday against first-time Olympian Amina Zidani of France for a similar spot in the quarterfinals.
Carlo Paalam (men’s 57kg) will face Australian Charlie Senior in the quarterfinals also Saturday.
The quarterfinal winners are already assured of at least a bronze medal.
Also later Friday, swimmer Jarod Hatch was slated to plunge into the men’s 100m butterfly heats.
As of 6 p.m., China leads the medal race with an 11-7-7 gold-silver-bronze tally, followed by the United States (9-16-13), France (8-11-8), Australia (8-6-5), Japan (8-3-5), South Korea (6-3-3), and Italy (5-7-4).
Canada and Netherlands have three gold medals each, while Germany, Romania, New Zealand, Hongkong, Croatia, and Azerbaijan have two golds apiece. No Southeast Asian nation has landed on the medal table as of this writing. / PNA