PH judoka Kiyomi Watanabe falls short in Olympic debut

Kiyomi Watanabe had an early exit in her first Olympic stint.

The Filipino-Japanese judoka fell short against Cristina Cabana Perez of Spain in the Round of 32 of the women’s -63kg division at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Tuesday at the Nippon Budokan.

The first waza-ari was given to the Spanish Judoka and was later upgraded to ippon, ending Watanabe's stint.

Watanabe snared a gold medal when she competed in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. Before that, she also won the gold in the 2013, 2015, and 2017 editions of the biennial meet.

Last June 23, the 24-year-old placed 41st in the women's -63 kg with 1,506 points, making herself the 14th Filipino athlete to punch a ticket to this year's Summer Games.

She was also the country's female flag bearer along with boxer Eumir Marcial.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA News