Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 12) – Filipino karatekas Joane Orbon, John Enrico Vasquez, and Ivan Agustin on Saturday ended their chase for a Tokyo Olympics berth after being eliminated in the early rounds of the 2021 Karate Olympic Qualification Tournament in Paris, France.
Orbon, who competed in the women’s kumite -61kg division, registered a huge 6-3 win against Cyprus’ Anthea Stylianou in the round-of-64. But she failed to carry her momentum in the next round after bowing to Hungary’s Aleksandra Ilankovic, 4-2.
Meanwhile, Vasquez almost made it to the medal round of the male kata event. He finished second behind six kata specialists in his pool in the first round with 23.66 points, enough to qualify for the next round after he ranked 15th out of 55 athletes.
In the second round, Vasquez also finished in 15th spot out of 32 athletes with 23.94 points. His standing ranked third in his bracket.
The Dagupan City native, however, landed a sixth place finish in the third round with 24.96 points.
Agustin, on the other hand, crashed out early in the male kumite -75kg division tournament after a close 0-1 loss to Colombia’s Juan Landazuri.
Their losses leave 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Jamie Lim and Sharief Afif as the remaining Filipino karatekas in contention for an outright slot in the inaugural Olympic karate competitions slated in Tokyo, Japan next month.
Three other Filipino karatekas – Junna Tsukii, Jason Macaalay, and Sarah Pangilinan – also lost their chance for an outright qualification in the Tokyo Games.
