Petecio, who is more than a decade older than Van der Toorn, was met by a flurry of punches in the opening round, with the Dutch boxer dominating proceedings. Standing more than a head taller than the Filipino boxer, Van der Toorn’s tactic of keeping Petecio at arm’s length paid dividends.
But the 2019 world champion came out swinging in the second round, breaching Van der Toorn’s long-limbed defences. The boxers went into the third with the match evenly poised.
According to the judges, Petecio got the upper hand in the deciding round with Van der Toorn visibly surprised when the referee raised her opponent’s hand.
In a surprising result, Petecio’s compatriot and Olympic silver medallist Carlo Paalam lost to Turkmenistan’s Shukur Ovezov in their men’s 57kg round of 16 contest. In one of the other 57kg fights, Kazakh world champion Makhmud Sabyrkhan marched into the quarterfinals with a unanimous 5-0 win over Caleb Josue Tirado Pagan of Puerto Rico.
In the men’s 71kg round of 16, world champion Aslanbek Shymbergenov of Kazakhstan narrowly beat Turkmen boxer Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov 3-2.
The Olympic Qualifying Tournament, broadcast on Olympics.com, is the first of two boxing qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will come to a climactic conclusion on Monday.
