MALAYSIA—The 21-year-old Filipino-Japanese Kiyomi Watanabe recorded her 3rd straight judo gold medal in the 63kg division in the ongoing 29th Southeast Asian Games at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center Hall 1 on Saturday.
Watanabe fought with strength, speed and exemplary combat skills to defeat Orapin Senatham of Thailand in just 36 seconds via “Ippon”— a successful delivery of a single move in a judo match.
Watanabe expressed her satisfaction in her performance in the 2017 Sea Games “This win is a gift. I promise to do better and train harder,” she said.
This is the 3rd gold medal title of Watanabe where she bested in the 63kg division in 2013 Myanmar SEAG and 2015 Singapore SEAG.
Bronze medal was copped by Nika Azmin of host Malaysia after pinning down Thi Huong Nguyen of Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Filipino-Japanes Shugen Nakano got the bronze medal award in the under 66 division. | Meg Siozon – PTV Sports
