Kiyomi Watanabe ends Paris ‘24 bid in stunning early exit

In what appeared to be a continuation of a sad story overall for the Filipino judoka, Kiyomi Watanabe’s Olympic dream ended early as she fell quickly out of medal contention in the 2024 Paris Games.

She ended her Olympics bid in a 51-second Ippon loss against China’s Jing Tang in the women’s judo -63kg Round of 32 at the Champ-de-Mar Arena in Paris, France Tuesday afternoon (Manila time).

This is the second straight early exit for Watanabe, following a similar ippon loss against Spanish judoka Cristina Cabana Perez in just 38 seconds at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Watanabe is the third Filipino and first woman judo athlete to compete in multiple Summer Olympic Games, the last being John Baylon and Jerry Dino in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

Watanabe is a regional champion, having won in the Southeast Asian Games in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.