MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will finish the Paris Olympics with at least two medals.
Hours after Carlos Yulo's historic golden performance in the men's artistic gymnastics floor exercise final on Saturday night, boxer Aira Villegas guaranteed herself a medal of her own and the Philippines another one.
Villegas braved the boisterous home crowd and defeated French Wassila Lkhadiri via split decision in the women's 50kg quarterfinals at the North Paris Arena early Sunday, August 4 (Manila time).
Securing herself a bronze medal as a semifinalist, Villegas drew identical 29-28s from three judges while the other two favored Lkhadiri, 30-27 and 29-28.
Villegas will face Turkish Buse Naz Cakiroglu in the semifinal round on August 7 at 4:18 a.m. in Manila.
After taking the first round and losing the second, Villegas, who turned 29 years old on August 1, outlasted Lkhadiri in the third and final frame.
Banking on her quick hands, shifty, and speedy movements, Villegas simply outgunned the equally determined Lkhadiri with jabs, power punches, and combinations enough to outpoint the latter in the close fight.
Villegas thus made it three in a row after scoring unanimous decision victories against Moroccan Yasmine Mouttaki in the round of 32 and Algerian Roumaysa Boualam in the round of 16.
Villegas' quarterfinal victory is huge for the Philippine boxing team in Paris after one of its top bets in Carlo Paalam exited the tournament.
A Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, Paalam suffered a tough split decision loss to Aussie Charlie Senior in the men's 57kg quarterfinals on Saturday evening.
Paalam joined Eumir Marcial (men's 80kg) and Hergie Bacyadan (women's 75kg) in the list of Filipino boxers who got booted out already.
Only Villegas and Nesthy Petecio remain standing in the 5-athlete Philippine boxing team.
A Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, Petecio was set to fight Chinese Xu Zichun on Sunday evening and a win in their women's 57kg quarterfinal bout would guarantee her a bronze medal finish, too.
Yulo, meanwhile, was gunning for another gold in the vault final on Sunday evening.