KIYOMI Watanabe bagged a bronze medal for the Philippines in the Paris Grand Slam 2017 judo tournament held in Paris, France yesterday.
The Filipino-Japanese Watanabe, who was born and raised in Cebu, defeated Lucy Renshall of Great Britain in the bronze medal match of the women’s 63-kilogram category.
Watanabe’s mother is from Toledo City.
Her bid for a gold medal got squashed when she lost to France’s Clarisse Agbegnenou in the semifinal round. Trina Trstenjak of Serbia took home the gold after winning over Agbegnenou in the finals.
The 20-year-old Watanabe, who made a name for herself after bagging gold medals in two straight editions of the Southeast Asian Games, put up strong performances in the earlier rounds, beating Junxia Yang of China in the second round and overwhelming Russian Daria Davydova in the quarters.
Her performance was an improvement from last year, where she only managed to finish among the top 16.