For the second straight time, two-time Olympian Kiyomi Watanabe of judo won’t be participating in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games after the -63-kilogram weight category was scrapped.
Philippine Judo Federation president Ali Sulit told DAILY TRIBUNE that only nine categories will be contested in the prestigious biennial meet in Thailand for both the men’s and women’s divisions from 9 to 20 December.
“So there’s no weight category for Kiyomi. So it really depends on the prerogative of the host country,” Sulit said
“That’s final.”
Watanabe skipped the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia for the same reason.
The 28-year-old Filipino-Japanese judoka won four straight gold medals in the SEA Games in the -63-kg category.
Watanabe was unstoppable in 2013 in Naypyidaw, 2015 in Singapore, 2017 in Malaysia and 2019 in Manila.
With this in mind, Watanabe will be setting her sights again on competing in the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan in 2026.
The last time Watanabe competed in the Asiad, she lost to Miku Takaichi of Japan in the quarterfinal of the women’s -63-kg event.
Sulit said getting to next year’s Asiad will be easier said than done as they are waiting to see which competitions will serve as qualifying events.
“Here’s the new thing about the Asian Games: It’s like the Olympics now,” Sulit said.
“That means we would have to join these qualifying events. Though the situation now is they haven’t announced yet which ones are the qualifying events for the Asians so we’re waiting for the announcements.”