Kiyomi Watanabe fought hard but came up short of a medal in the 2021 Asian Senior Judo Championships, Wednesday evening (Manila time) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The 24-year-old Filipino-Japanese — who is gunning for a Tokyo Olympics spot — dragged South Korea’s Cho Mokhee into the golden score after neither came up with a score in four minutes of the bronze medal match of the women’s minus-63 kilogram division.
Watanabe was forced to get aggressive as she received her second shido, the same as the Korean opposition. Nonetheless, it was Cho who came up with a subtle ouchi garish throw for an ippon and the consequent bronze medal.
The 2018 Asian Games silver medalist made a gallant stand before losing the second round against eventual champion Han Hee Ju of South Korea.
Watanabe earlier won over Unnati Sharma of India in the first round. She then bounced back in the repechage against Chinese Taipei’s Pei Chun Yuan.
Earlier in the day, Keisei Nakano bowed down after losing in the repechage match against UAE’s Victor Scvortov to finish in seventh place in men’s -73 kg.
The 24-year-old earlier won the first round against Sulaiman Hamad with a waza-ari. She later lost to South Korea’s An Changrim in the following match.
Shugen Nakano rounded up the contingent with a first round exit in men’s -66 kg, losing to Uzbekistan’s Yeldos Zhumakanov.
