FILIPINO-JAPANESE Junna Tsukii showed that she’s well on her way to burying a failed bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics by winning a gold medal in the Karate1 Premier League at the Cairo International Stadium in Nasr City, Egypt, on Sunday evening.
Tsukii brought down hometown bet Areeg Rashed, 2-1, to rule the women’s -50 kgs class and send a statement that she’s in business to try all over again to make the grade in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The 29-year-old Tsukii, a 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, broke a 1-1 score with a flurry of victory-clinching punches in the final six seconds of her event’s final in the tournament sanctioned by the World Karate Federation.
Karate Pilipinas President Ricky Lim said that he expects Tsukii to be stronger than ever after her disappointment at the Karate Olympic Qualification in Paris, France, in June.
“We know she’s [Tsukii] going to win because of the setback in the last Olympic qualifying. She’s set to bounce back and regain her title,” Lim told BusinessMirror on Monday.
Lim added that Tsukii is focused on winning gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou (China) is hosting from September 10 to 25.
Before reaching the finals, Tsukii blasted Aleksandra Grujic of Austria in the first round, beat Venezuela’s Yorgelis Salazar in the quarterfinals and defeated Ahmed Saleema of Egypt in the semifinals.
It was Tsukii’s third gold medal this year after prevailing in a tournament in Lisbon, Portugal, in May and at the Golden Belt Tournament in Cacak, Serbia, last month.
She was eliminated in the round of 32 of the Paris qualifiers, where she bowed to Bulgaria’s Ivet Goronova, 1-2.