Sana Irie of Japan edged Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines for the Olympic gold medal in boxing's women's featherweight division Tuesday at the Kokugikan Arena.

Petecio fell behind in the first round, took the second and after the third round, judges gave Irie a 4-1 verdict.

It was Irie's third win over world champion Petecio.

Despite Petecio's setback, the Philippines has won one gold through lifter Hidilyn Diaz, a silver from Petecio and two bronzes from flyweight Carlo Paalam and middleweight Eumir Marcial.

This surpassed the three bronze medals won by the Philippines in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

Paalam, who dethroned defending Olympic champion Shakhobdin Zoirov ofg Uzbekistan earlier, is assured of a bronze, just like Marcial.

Paalam and Marcial will shoot for gold medal berths in their next matches. DMS