Judo chief wants more

KIYOMI Watanabe inches closer for an Olympic berth. ROMAN PROSPERO @tribunephl_RRP

Philippine Judo Federation (PJF) president David Carter is optimistic that they could send at least two judokas in the coming 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Aside from Kiyomi Watanabe, Carter believes that one of his Fil-Japanese judokas could clinch the Olympic slot through the continental quota although he did not name the athlete.

“Aside from Kiyomi, we are looking at the possibility of having another athlete qualified for the Olympics,” Carter told Daily Tribune.

“Aside for her [Watanabe], we still have another athlete who can qualify through a ‘continental quota’ as they say. It’s not a wild card category or whatsoever,” he added.

But Carter said that athlete will come from the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games team that produced 13 medals in the biennial meet.

In the recent biennial meet, Watanabe (women’s -63kg), Mariya Takahashi (women’s -70kg) and Shugen Nagano (men’s -66kg) delivered the three gold medals in judo for the host country.

“It will be one of the Fil-Japanese athletes. However, I won’t give out the name yet. But it might be among the top medalists for SEA Games,” Carter said.

The judo chief also assured that the country’s top bet and Asian Games silver medalist Watanabe is continuing her rigorous training program as the 23-year old Filipina just got back from recently-concluded 2019 World Masters held in China.

“Her performance there was okay. They were very careful. Her coach was very well-calculated on what Kiyomi should execute,” Carter said.

“Kiyomi’s training still continues since she is staying in Japan the whole time. She is now focused just on training.”

Carter also bared that Watanabe’s camp is doubling its efforts with a busy 2020 ahead of them.

“Kiyomi seems to have a sure slot for the Olympics. But of course we are still waiting for the final announcement on the last week of May,” the judo chief said.

“This coming 2020, they will immediately compete in the Israel Grand Prix on January. Followed by Paris in February and Germany next March. There will be three consecutive competitions that she will enter.”