Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 29) – Filipino-Japanese karateka Junna Tsukii gained a significant progress in her quest to play in the Tokyo Olympics after ruling the Golden Belt Tournament in Cacak, Serbia last weekend.
The 29-year-old karateka defeated bets from Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia in the early rounds. Tsukii faced another Croatian karateka in the finals where she prevailed, 2-1.
“I’m very happy to be able to have fought with the top players in this time. Let’s move on to take advantage of this experience,” said Tsukii.
Tsukii earlier competed in the Premier League, where she bowed out in the first round against Venezuela’s Yorgelis Salazar, 1-5.
The Filipino-Japanese karateka is tied with Uzbekistan’s Bakhriniso Babaeva in 10th place in the World Karate Federarion women’s kumite 50 kg. world ranking, with 3,712.50 points. The top 4 in the division will gain a berth in the Olympics, where the sport will make its debut in Tokyo.
Tsukii, a 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, has been training in Japan with her father. She is expected to join other Filipino karatekas like Jamie Lim, Joan Orbon, Sharif Afif, Alwyn Batican and Ivan Agustin in Turkey for their training camp in preparation for the Tokyo Games.
The world Olympic karate qualifiers will be held in Paris, France in June, a month before the Tokyo Olympics.
