Watanabe settles for silver, falls to Japanese foe in Asiad judo finals

MANILA, Philippines — Another day, another medal for the Philippines. And yes, count it on the wonder women’s tally of shining hardwares hauled.

Kiyomi Watanabe bagged the silver medal in the women’s judo competition of the 2018 Asian Games after a valiant stand against a higher-ranked Nami Nabekura of Japan in the 63-kg division, Thursday afternoon at the Jakarta Convention Center in Indonesia.

Watanabe, ranked 19th in the distaff 63-kg side of the world, per International Judo Federation, fell to the 3rd-ranked Nabekura.

Nabekura’s most commendable outing came just this July when she bested Rio Olympics gold medalist Tina Trstenjak.

The Cebu-born Watanabe, whose Filipino roots trace to her mom Irene, did not go down easily, though.

Riding high from her victory against Mongolia’s Gankhaich via waza-ari in the semifinal, Watanabe mounted a pesky showing in a bid to dictate the tempo.

But the grizzled Nabekura's experience showed. She shot for a first waza-ari in the 2:09 mark and then another via hold in the final 40 ticks of the match, dispatching the Filipina for good.

Watanabe’s silver shines like gold, though, as it vastly improves her 2014 outing in Incheon where she finished 7th.  

The 22-year-old joins Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting), Lois Kaye Go, Bianca Pagdanganan and Yuka Saso (golf), Margielyn Didal (skateboarding, Junna Tsukii, Meggie Ochoa (jiu-jitsu), Agatha Wong (wushu, Taijiquan), Divine Wally (wushu, Sanda), Rinna Babanto, Juvinile Crisostomo and Janna Olivia (tae kwon do, Poomsae) in the list of Filipinas who scripted a podium finish in the quadrennial meet.