HANGZHOU. – Veteran Kiyomi Watanabe and four other Filipino judokas suffered crushing losses in the judo competition of the 19th Asian Games on Monday at the Xiaoshan Linpu Gymnasium here.
Watanabe, who won a silver medal in the 2018 edition of the Asian Games in Jakarta, fell prey to a Japanese powerhouse in the quarterfinals to bomb out of medal contention in the women’s minus 63kg class.
Two-time world silver medalist Miku Takaichi flaunted her strength as she threw the 27-year-old Watanabe for an ippon in the first 12 seconds of their match and booked a slot in the semifinals.
Watanabe was relegated to the repechage round where she lost to Esmigul Kuyolova of Kazakhstan also via ippon in the first 13 seconds of their encounter.
“Our athletes are in good condition,” Philippine Judo Federation Secretary General Dave Carter said. “But we got unlucky in the draw. Our athletes got paired against the top seeds in Asia. We will work hard and be more prepared next time.”
Also bombing out early were Keisei Nakano, Rena Furukawa, John Ferrer, and Ryoko Salinas.
