Kiyomi Watanebe of the Philippines (white) competes against Oran Senetham of Thailand (blue) in the women’s 63kg class of the 29th Southeast Asian Games judo competition. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/SEA GAMES MEDIA POOL
TOKYO—Filipino judo star Kiyomi Watanabe feels her injured elbow will hold up well as she chases an Olympic medal here.
The “elbow is not yet completely healed,” Watanabe told Inquirer’s SportsIQ in Japanese recently. “[But] it has strength already so I don’t think it will be a problem.”
Watanabe has been nursing an injured elbow for quite some time now and has also been hampered by training environments cramped by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Because of COVID-19, I did my best to practice in a limited environment. I do weights, judo training in Yamanashi (Prefecture) or Tokyo with the Waseda (University team),” the 24-year-old Watanabe said.
Watanabe plunges into action on July 27 during the preliminaries of the -63 kilograms in the women’s division.
“[M]y goal is to win a medal, so I’m just going to do my best to get that goal, and I hope everyone will continue to support me,” Watanabe said.