HANGZHOU, China — The national judo squad will go home without a single medal after it bowed to Thailand in the Round of 16 of the mixed team event of the 19th Asian Games at the Xiaohan Linpu Gymnasium here.
All four Pinoy judokas, led by Olympian Kiyomi Watanabe, were wiped out by their Thai rivals to wrap up their campaign without a single medal in this tourney supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee.
Watanabe bowed to former Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Thonthan Satjadet in the women’s +70-kilogram class while Ryoko Salinas surrendered to Supattra Nanonong in the women’s -70-kg event via ippon in the first 31 minutes of action.
Also surrendering to Thai superiority were John Viron Ferrer in the men’s -90-kg event and Carl Dave Aneseta in the men’s +90-kg event, who lost to Wei Fuyang and Kittipong Hantratin, respectively.
With that, the Filipinos ended ninth while the Thais advanced to the quarterfinals.
(ai/mnm)