PH judoka Kiyomi Watanabe nears Olympic berth

FILE – Kiyomi Watanabe of the Philippines clinches the gold medal in the women’s -63kg event of the 29th Southeast Asian Games judo competition Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/SEA GAMES MEDIA POOL

MANILA, Philippines—Kiyomi Watanabe is on her way to securing a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Watanabe, the country’s top female bet in judo, is currently ranked 23rd, which makes her on track to qualify with the top 26 judokas in the world in each weight class automatically earning Olympic berths.

All Watanabe has to do is to compete in all the remaining Olympic qualifying tournaments to keep her ranking.

Dave Carter, president of the Philippine Judo Federation, is confident about Watanabe’s chances of directly qualifying for the Olympics.

Watanabe is slated to compete in the Osaka world championships next month just before the Southeast Asian Games, which serves as the last Olympic qualifier for the year.

The 23-year-old Watanabe will then compete in three more qualifying tournaments in 2020 just before the cut off in July.

“Slots in the Tokyo Olympics are our bigger targets,” PSC chairman William Ramirez said. “We are looking at more Filipino athletes qualifying in the Tokyo Games after gymnast Carlos Yulo and pole vaulter EJ Obiena.”

Watanabe is a three-time SEA Games gold medalist. She also won the silver medal in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Carter sees the Philippine Judo Team capable of winning six to seven golds out of the 16 judo events in the 30th biennial games with the six Filipino-Japanese judokas suiting up for the team.

The other five Filipino-Japanese judokas competing in the SEA Games are Maria Takahasi, Heisei Nakano, Shugen Nakano, Shin Matsumura and Riyoko Salinas all of whom are also primed to land podium finishes.