In just her very first Olympics stint, Aira Villegas has already made history.
The Filipina boxer will be going home with a bronze medal after reaching the semifinals of the women’s 50-kilogram division, where she lost via unanimous decision to Türkiye’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu.
Cakiroglu, the third-seed in the weight class, overwhelmed Villegas in their semis bout at the Roland-Garros Stadium yesterday (Philippine time) to advance to the gold medal match, where she will be seeking to improve upon the silver medal that she won in the Tokyo Games.
Despite falling short of the gold medal, it is still a superb campaign for Villegas, who is making her Summer Games debut.
She adds to the Philippines’ haul in Paris, after Carlos Yulo won two gold medals in men’s artistic gymnastics.
Villegas is only the second female boxer to win an Olympic medal for the Philippines, after Nesthy Petecio’s silver in the Tokyo Games.
Petecio is also assured of a medal in Paris, having reached the semis of the 57-kilogram division.
After winning her first three assignments in the Olympics, Villegas found few answers to Türkiye’s Cakiroglu in the semis.
She was on the back foot almost immediately, and a standing eight-count in the first round put the Filipina behind on the scorecards, with one judge giving Cakiroglu a 10-8 score.
Down in the cards after two rounds, Villegas ramped up the pressure in the third and landed some eye-catching punches, but Cakiroglu was a step ahead and countered with her own shots, including a right uppercut that visibly knocked back Villegas’ head.
Cakiroglu won all five scorecards, with scores of 30-27 three times and 30-26 twice.
Cakiroglu will face China’s Wu Yu, the top-seed in the division, for the gold.
Wu had beaten Kazakhstan’s Nazym Kyzaibay in their own semis match.
The 29-year-old Villegas assured herself of a medal when she stunned hometown bet Wassila Lkhadiri of France in the quarterfinals last Saturday, August 3, claiming a 3-2 split decision to silence the boisterous crowd at the North Paris Arena.
Before that, she defeated Algeria’s Roumaysa Boualam in the round-of-16 and Yasmine Mouttaki of Morocco in the round-of-32. (ABS-CBN News)