Kiyomi Watanabe with her mother Irene. / Mars G. Alison
ASIDE from improving her performance in the upcoming 18th Asian Games which will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia this August, Cebuana judoka Kiyomi Watanabe is aiming for more as she sets her sights on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 21-year-old three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Watanabe, whose mother Irene Sarausad is a native of Toledo City, Cebu, is looking to improve her seventh place finish in her last stint in the Asian Games last 2014 in South Korea.
But more than that, she is also busy gearing up for a stint in the prestigious Olympic games.
Watanabe is half-Filipino, half Japanese as her father is Japanese Shigeru Watanabe. She has opted to represent the Philippines despite residing in Japan and getting several offers to represent Japan.
The judoka was born here and lived here until she was eight years old before moving to Japan permanently.
According to her mother Irene, in preparation for her daughter’s Olympic campaign, they have added three hours to her regular five-hour training.
They have a team of eight personnel whom Irene calls the Team Kiyomi assisting in her training. The team is comprised of five coaches, a mental trainer, a weight trainer and a nutritionist.
Training is the top most priority for Watanabe who takes a photo of her food in every meal not for posting on social media but to send it to her nutritionist who would check it.
Before the Asian Games, Watanabe will be competing in two other international competitions wherein she will be earning points to be added to her current points so she could get into the top 12 of the world rankings to be able to compete in the Olympics.
Ranked fourth in the world
The qualifying for the Olympic judo competition has changed. Winning gold in the SEA Games or the Asian Games will no longer qualify a judoka to the Olympics.
He or she has to accumulate enough points from international competitions sanctioned by the International Judo Federation as an Olympic qualifier to enter the top 12 in the world rankings and qualify for the Olympics. Each of the 12 should also come from one country only.
So if there are two or three coming from one country, only one of them can go to the Olympics and the next country in line will go up the rankings to fill the top 12 who will be seeing action in the Olympics.
Watanabe is currently ranked no. 20 in the world and no. 4 in Asia behind two Japanese judokas ranked top 1 and 2 and one judoka from Mongolia ranked no. 3.
Since there is more than one judoka coming from other countries like Japan, Watanabe has a good chance of moving up and getting a slot to the Olympics.
She just needs to continue accumulating points.
The last time that a Filipino judoka made it to the Olympics was in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Watanabe starts her bid for more points with a stint in the Hohhot Grand Prix 2018 in China in May.
Then next will be the Taipei Asian Open 2018 in July before the Asiad in August, wherein a good draw will allow her to go for a third place or even higher in the – 63 kilograms category.
Irene is grateful for the Philippine Sports Commission for fully supporting her daughter by paying for a good training partner and funding for her international competitions.
The rest is taken cared by Watanabe’s school, Waseda University, who is helping in her training despite Watanabe’s decision to represent the Philippines.
Watanabe has ruled the All-Japan Judo Championships in 2016 and has led Waseda University to its second straight All Japan University Championships, wherein she was also named as the Most Valuable Player for two straight years.
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