by Nick Giongco
Japanese Olympic officials are giddy with excitement over the prospects of seeing two Filipino athletes with Japanese lineage make it to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Chief of mission Joey Romasanta told the Bulletin that the Japanese know about golfer Yuka Saso and judoka Kiyomi Watanabe.
During his recent Tokyo trip where Romasanta joined other CDMs, he was told that the Japanese are looking forward to hosting Saso and Watanabe, whose respective fathers are originally from Japan.
Yuka Saso (MB photo | Czar Dancel)
“If they make it, they assured me that they’ll extend some sort of assistance to them,” said Romasanta, who has met with eight leaders of national sports associations that are likely to send bets to the July 24-Aug. 9 Games.
Saso, a 2018 Asian Games double gold medalist, is the country’s top lady golfer.
Watanabe, born in Cebu City, took the silver in the 2018 Asian Games and is a three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist.
In the 2018 Rio Olympics, the Philippines sent 13 competitors in eight sports with Romasanta also serving as the CDM.
Fil-Japanese Kiyomi Watanabe (seen here after taking the silver in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta) will have a hectic 2019 schedule. (Nick Giongco)
The Philippines has never won an Olympic gold medal in almost a century of participation, coming close to winning thrice in 1964 (Tokyo), 1996 (Atlanta) and 2016 (Rio).
Boxing has produced five out of the ten Olympic medals—two silver and three bronze.
Athletics and swimming have two each while weightlifting has one, courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz in Rio.