It’s a bronze for neophyte Olympian boxer Villegas
PARIS, France — Aira Villegas’ journey in the 2024 Olympics ended in a semifinal windup.
No gold, no silver, but she had played her part in Team Philippines’ memorable, historic ride — her bronze feat to be celebrated and looked upon by the next generations of Filipino Olympic medal hopefuls.
Ms. Villegas’ Cinderella run as a neophyte Olympian came to an end at the hands of bemedaled Turkish fighter Buse Naz Cakiroglu, a former world champion and the Tokyo Games silver winner who dazzled her way to a unanimous 5-0 victory before a packed crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier inside Roland Garros.
“She is real good, more technical,” said Ms. Villegas of her opponent, also her conqueror in a quarterfinals bout in the 2022 World Championship.
Overwhelmed and beaten, Ms. Villegas settled for the bronze but vowed her journey as a boxer isn’t stopping in her semis finish in the Paris Games.
Boxing is Ms. Villegas’ bread and butter, her monthly allowance and incentives helping the family in their daily lives. It had helped them recover from the devastation of Yolanda in their province in 2013.
“I’m not in Tacloban then, it wreck our home,” said Ms. Villegas, then already training in the ABAP (Alliance of Boxing Association of the Philippines) camp after being discovered in the Philippine National Games.
She’s one of five from six Villegas siblings who took boxing, taking the cue from eldest Ruel and the second eldest Rominic, who’s still in the sport as a referee.
And she’s been doing the same since becoming a national boxer — long way she’s gone from being a peanut vendor, daughter of a balut vendor.
At 29, Ms. Villegas said she’s still chasing an Olympic gold as she pursues her criminology course at the University of Baguio.
She’s good for bronze at the moment as she ran smack into Ms. Cakiroglu who’s now heading to the gold-medal bout versus China’s Wu Yu, a 4-1 point winner over Kazakh Nazym Kyzaibay.
Ms. Villegas lost to a better fighter but the Philippine camp believed the Filipina fighter could have gotten a chance if Ms. Cakiroglu’s fall in the second round wasn’t ruled a slip.
It was Ms. Villegas who’s given a standing eight count in the opening round.
In the end, everybody agreed though that Ms. Cakiroglu deserved the win.
Ms. Villegas, meanwhile, deserved adulation in punching her way to a podium finish in her very first Olympics.
She’s the latest from boxing to medal in the Olympics, joining Jose Villanueva (1932), Anthony Villanueva (1964), Leopoldo Serantes (1988), Roel Velasco (1992), Onyok Velasco (1996), Nesthy Petecio (2020), Carlo Paalam (2020) and Eumir Marcial (2020). — Nelson Beltran
