Judokas crash out of Asiad anew

INCHEON, South Korea – Philippine Judo suffered another medal drought in the Asian Games on Sunday at Dowon Gym here.

Judokas Gilbert Ramirez and Kiyomi Watanabe came up short and fell out of the medal round that extended the dry spell of the country in this event since the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.

Ramirez lost his bout against Kazakhstan's Ykbayev Dastan, yielding two Wazare or two half points.

Watanabe, for her part, won her preliminary match against Gulnar Hayytbayeva of Turkmenistan via Ippon but lost ground against world no. 3 Kana Abe of Japan in a hardly fought match.

Watanabe made Abe worked for full four minutes but the Fil-Japanese's two Yuko (penalties) allowed the latter to pull off the victory.

Watanabe missed the chance to get into the medal round when Marian Urdabayeva of Kazakhstan quickly stopped her in just 14 seconds in the repechage match.