By Bong Pedralvez

UNHERALDED Aira Villegas sustained her improbable run in the Paris Olympic Games boxing tourney early yesterday morning (Saturday night in France), scoring a thrilling 3-2 split decision over Frenchwoman Wassila Lkhadiri in the quarterfinals of the 50kg division to assure herself of at least a bronze at the Arena Paris Nord.

Tuning out the hometown crowd, Villegas won the opening round with her slick combination of punches, but the hometown bet evened it at one around apiece with a strong finish in the action-packed second.

It went down to the deciding third, with the Ormoc, Leyte southpaw showing she was hungrier and better of the two protagonists in a barroom brawl that seemed too close to call.

When the judgment was announced, it was Villegas’ hand that was raised, with three judges giving her the match with hairline scores of 29-28, 29-28, 29-28 while the other two had it 30-27, 29-28 in Lkhadiri’s favor.

The Pinay boxer could not contain her joy, jumping with glee with tears in her eyes as the verdict was declared and then, in a gesture of true sportsmanship, approached the sobbing Lkhadiri in her corner, hugging her tight in consolation.

Villegas then went to the center of the ring, falling on her knees and raising her hands upward in grateful praise before returning to her corner where coaches Reynaldo Galido and Don Abnett warmly embraced her.

Her maiden Olympic campaign continues on Tuesday in the semifinals against Turkish No. 3 seed Buse Naz Cakiroglu, who shut out Finland’s Pihla Kaivo-ova 5-0 in the quarterfinals.

She is a Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist and European champion.

Villegas’ win softened somewhat the stunning loss of Tokyo Summer Games silver medalist Carlo Paalam, who dropped a heartbreaking 2-3 decision to Australian upstart Charlie Senior in the men’s featherweight quarterfinals earlier in the night.