Judokas miss target

It was a combination of prosperous yet tough Southeast Asian (SEA) Games edition for them.

The Filipino judokas team delivered a remarkable performance in front of the home crowd as they bagged a total of 13 medals composed by three golds, one silver and nine bronze medals throughout the biennial meet.

However, there seems to be a gray area on assessing their campaign.

Philippine Judo Federation president David Carter admitted that despite the number of medals that the team has won, they still missed some of their expectations.

“They did well. Unfortunately, my target for them was no less than five golds. There were some categories where they fell short,” Carter said.

“Overall, we are satisfied with the campaign. We just lacked a little bit and not unable to hit the target (on gold medals).”

Even more, there is a shade of regret that most of the bets fell short to enter the final rounds and were limited to only bronze finish.

But the positive side of their SEA Games weighs way heavier than the slight upset.

“I think almost everyone managed to get at least a bronze medal,” Carter said.

The judo chief remained grateful with the overall success of nationals as top-class judokas Shugen Nakano (men’s 66kg), Mariya Takahashi (women’s 70kg) and former Asiad silver medalist Kiyomi Watanabe (women’s 63kg) showcased their strength and might to notch the gold medals for the country.

“Of course the future for judo is brighter, it’s a good achievement, considering that last SEA Games, we just got two golds.”

Carter mentioned that their SEA Games output was just a glimpse of what is yet to come, particularly for the top-tier and four-time biennial gold medalist Watanabe.

“The performance she (Watanabe) did here, she was so relaxed. She knew her advantages entering the competition. She is conserving her power for the next competition. Right after her SEA Games competition, Watanabe flew to China for World Masters,” he said.