AFTER pruning several events in gymnastics and scrapping bowling, Cambodian organizers of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games are also set to fiddle with combat sports, including judo, to boost their medal prospects on their own turf in 2023.
“I learned that the Cambodian hosts want to trim the events in judo, leaving out the heavier weight divisions where they are weak,” a ranking local judo official, who declined to be identified, said yesterday.
If the 32nd SEA Games hosts would have their way, the source added, four-time SEA Games champion and Tokyo Olympic veteran Kiyomi Watanabe, who was sidelined in the Vietnam Games due to injury, would not be able to return in the Cambodia edition since the women’s 63-kilogram division is likely to be excluded.
“The Cambodians were already advised that leaving out the traditional weight divisions in the judo competitions in the SEA Games would not sit well with the Judo Union of Asia,” added the source, a respected figure in the Asian judo body.
Despite the absence of Watanabe and Mariya Takashi, both gold medalists in the 2019 SEA Games, Filipino judokas still delivered two gold, four silver and four bronze medals in the Vietnamese Games in Hanoi.
