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Villegas keeps PH medal hopes alive; Hatch begins 100m butterfly bid

Villegas keeps PH medal hopes alive; Hatch begins 100m butterfly bid

MANILA: Aira Villegas celebrated one of her most memorable birthdays with a unanimous decision win over Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria in the Paris Olympics women's boxing 50kg round of 16 early Friday (PH time) at North Paris Arena.She turned 29 on Aug. 1 and immediately made the quarterfinals against France's Wassila Lkhadiri. Their match is set Saturday at 3:20 a.m. (PH time).Nesthy Petecio (women's 57kg), will follow 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 at about 9:30 p.m.The quarterfinal winners are already assured of at least bronze.Later from 5 p.m. onwards, swimmer Jarod Hatch plunges into the men's 100m butterfly heats.As of 4 p.m., China leads the medal race with an 11-7-6 gold-silver-bronze tally, followed by the United States (9-15-13), France (8-11-8), Australia (8-6-4), Japan (8-3-5), South Korea (6-3-3) and Italy (5-7-4).No Southeast Asian nation has landed on the medal table as of posting time.Source: Philippines News Agency