Julia Szeremeta defeated the Olympic champion in great style in the semi-final tournament boxers Nestha Petecio. The Filipina is a silver medalist from the previous games, Tokyo. Now she was the favorite in the clash with the Pole and won the first round unanimously. But the next two belonged to our 20-year-old revelation!
– This was the biggest test of Julka's life. I sat down with the guys from the team today and said that we will see here whether Julka is really that great, or whether she will crack under the pressure of this Filipina and it will turn out that she is overrated – said coach Tomasz Dylak honestly right after the fight in a conversation with a group of Polish journalists. – And Jula did not crack! She proved that she is someone great, she stole Roland and she is bigger than Iga Christmas – he laughed.
This is of course a reference to the arena where Szeremeta won the semi-final. The medal fights in boxing at these games are held on the courts Roland Garros. Szeremeta won the semifinal on the center court, or Court Philippe-Chatrier. It is on this historic arena that Świątek has already won four finals Grand Slam French Open. And it is here that Szeremeta will play in Saturday's final.
“Tell me she's taller!” Coach protects Szeremeta from a setback
After his assessment that Julka is the hardest fight of her career, I ask Coach Dylak what he will say about the fight that is now ahead of his competitor. Szeremeta's final opponent will be Yu Ting Lin, who was disqualified by the International Boxing Federation a year ago for failing a biochemical test for femininity. This year, the International Olympic Committee announced that the test was illegal and unreliable. And allowed Yu Ting Lin to compete at the Paris 2024 Games. After losing to her in the semifinals, the Turkish Yildiz crossed her fingers in the ring. This X stands for the X chromosome, which determines female gender.
After winning the semi-final, Szeremeta assured us that she would win on August 10, that after the fight she would raise her hand again and receive the gold medal. And she did not want to talk about her opponent. – Tell her she is taller! – the coach threw, wanting to protect his competitor from saying something that would arouse controversy.
“Everyone will say that Jula has no chance”
But coach Dylak himself finally responds to my question. “The final will be even more difficult than the semi-final, and there will be controversy and ugly comments,” I notice and ask him to tell me honestly what his plan is. Both for the fight and for the coming days, to distance himself from this. And especially Szeremety.
– On paper it will be like that and everyone will surely say that Jula has no chance. As a coach I think that this will be her toughest fight. Much, much tougher than the semi-final. But I'm not afraid because I know that Julka is phenomenal in defense and we will set up such a tactic that we will try to steal two rounds. We will have to win very tactically. Think through every detail, work everything out. This is the only way we will get it out. There is no point in going for pure boxing – replies the coach.
And finally he adds: I know there will be huge controversies. I already told the guys: “Do you know how this will end? Julka will win the semi-final fight and for one day there will be a lot of noise about the fact that we have the first final in boxing after 44 years. And then there will be incredible controversies before the final fight”. But we are prepared for that.