THE Philippine judo team showed remarkable resiliency in competing in the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games without national team mainstays and 2019 Philippine SEAG gold medalists Kiyomi Watanabe and Mariya Takahashi.
Even without Watanabe, a four-time SEA Games gold medalist, and back-to-back SEAG champion Takashashi, the Pinoy judokas produced sterling performances at the Hoí i Äức District Sporting Hall in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
With only the mixed team to be played yesterday, the Filipinos were surprisingly in second place in the overall medal standings with two golds, four silvers and one bronze medal behind host Vietnam (6-2-3) and ahead of third placer Indonesia (1-0-3) in the field of eight countries.
This was not too far below the country’s haul of three golds, one silver and nine bronze medals in the 2019 Philippine Games, finishing third in the medal tally in the competition held at the Laus Group Event Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
Appearing in his second straight SEAG outing for the country, Fil-Japanese Shugen Nakano overcame Vietnam’s Hoang Puac Truong and the hometown crowd in retaining his men’s 66-kilogram title while Rena Furukawa, a 2019 SEAG bronze medalist, ruled the women’s 57-kg. class.
Giving the Vietnamese bets a run for their money were silver medalists Daryl John Mercado, John Viron Ferrer and Khrizzie Pabulayan in the men’s 55-kg., 90-kg. and women’s -52-kg divisions., respectively; while Kesei Nakano, Shugen’s twin sibling, had the fourth silver in the men’s 73-kg. division.
Leah Jane Rodriguez accounted for the lone bronze medal in the women’s 48-kg. class, rounding out the tally that left Philippine Judo Federation president Alexander “Ali” Sulit gushing with pride on how well the Pinoy judokas performed despite the odds and limited preparations.
“This only goes to show that we can hold our own against our regional rivals with the proper preparation and training. With a little more improvement, we will be up there again,” Sulit noted.
He thanked the Philippine Sports Commission for the two-month bubble training of the Nationals at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex before heading for the 31st Vietnam SEA Games.
“We are thankful to the PSC that they allowed us our bubble training and gave us the facilities to prepare for the SEA Games. This was definitely vital to our preparations,” Sulit stressed while admiring the fighting spirit of the nationals.
“I was surprised by the tenacity and ferocity of our judokas. Their fighting spirit was pretty impressive and awesome,” said Sulit, “and I am privileged to witness them all. Nakakabilib talaga. (It was absolutely astounding).”
