PH karate hopeful of making it to Olympics
TOKYO Olympics karate hopeful Junna Tsukii has a reason to smile–she recently moved up to No. 8 in the latest women’s kumite -50 kg. category world rankings.
Tsukii’s hardwork has paid off as the Southeast Asian Games gold medalist is more than determined to secure a spot in this year’s Olympics, where karate will be played for the first time.
Coach Roksanda Atanasov and her student, world champion Jovana Prekovic are the main reasons for the Fil-Japanese’s conquest in the recently-concluded Karate 1-Premier League.
“This is my third time attending a training camp in Serbia. In order to win Premier League Lisbon, I trained and prepared with them for two months,” Tsukii posted on her Facebook account.
“You know a karate-ka’s true character outside of practice, without a karate-gi. They’re very respectful, generous people, who are true champions on and off the mat.”
Tsukii now has a total of 4447.50 points after she earned 990 points from winning the gold medal in Lisbon. Before the competition, she was hanging in 10th place.
The 29-year-old topped two-time world champion Alexandra Recchia of France, 2-0, in the semifinals, and bested Kazakhstan’s Moldir Zhangbyrbay, 2-0, in the gold medal bout.
Up next for Tsukii is the World Karate Championship, which also serves as an Olympic qualifying tournament, on June 11-14 in Paris, France.
Tsukii is expected to join the national team training camp in Istanbul, Turkey. The national team will fly to Paris on June 7.
Other national women’s team members set to see action in the France qualifier are fellow SEA Games gold medal winner Jamie Lim and Fil-Am Joane Orbon.
Turkey’s Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu currently leads the division with 11362.50 points, followed by Miho Miyahara of Japan with 6345.00.
Iran’s Sara Bahmanyar, whom Tsukii defeateed in the Round of 16, ranks third with 6022.50 points.
