Watanabe stuns Olympic medalist, snares bronze

The Philippines’ hot judo prospect Kiyomi Watanabe shocked 2008 Olympics bronze medalist Ketleyn Quadros of Brazil to cap a splendid bronzewinning feat in the Dusseldorf Grand Slam 2008 Saturday in Germany.

Watanabe showed her mettle in the women’s -63-kg bronze medal match with Quadros, throwing the fancied Brazilian for a waza-ari with a sumi-gaeshi and putting pressure on her on the ground as the Beijing veteran who’s hit by knee injury eventually tapped out.

The Fil-Japanese matched her best achievement in the Grand Slam – the biggest event in the International Judo Federation (IJF) World Tour – having previously won bronze in Paris.

Watanabe kicked off her campaign in the Dusseldorf Grand Slam with back-to-back victories over Lucy Renshall of Britain and Maelle Di Cintio of Franze to get a chance to vie for Pool D honors against fellow unbeaten Gankhaich Bold of Mongolia.

Bold, however, defeated Watanabe, sending the Phl ace to the repechage stage, where she disposed of Prisca Awiti of Mexico to advance to the bronze bout against losing semifinalist Quadros.

A three-time Southeast Asian Games champion, the 21-year-old Watanabe is being groomed for a shot at the Tokyo Olympics and is part of a five-man team that receives support from Philippine Sports Commission under its special ops program, according to judo president Dave Carter.

Meanwhile, world No. 16 Andreja Leski of Slovenia took the gold after beating Megumi Tsugame of Japan via waza-ari score. Bold won the other bronze medal match over May del Toro Carvajal of Cuba.