FILIPINO-JAPANESE Junna Tsukii bagged a gold medal in the in the International Golden Belt Karate tournament in Cacak, Serbia, on Saturday to boost her bid of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.
Tsukii beat Croatian Jelena Pehar, 2-1, in the final of the female -50 kgs senior kumite final, making her chances of joining six Filipinos who have already earned berths to Tokyo brighter.
“European players are physically strong, so they often do more short-distance techniques such as throwing and kicking,” Tsukii said. “So I needed to change my strategy by maintaining some distance first before going to my short distance technic.”
She defeated Serbian Milica Stanimirovic, 0-0, in the quarterfinals and another Croatian Grdenic Ines, 2-0, in the semifinals.
The 29-year-old Tsukii intimated to the BusinessMirror to go all out in the Premier League in Lisbon, Portugal, in May to emerge as Asia’s No. 1, a lofty spot that will send her sailing to the Olympics.
“I really want to raise the Philippine flag on top of the world,” said Tsukii, now No. 4 in Asia with 3,712.50 ranking points. “If I will be ranked high in Asia, including other classes or if I’ll win the Olympic qualifying in Paris, I can go to the Olympics.”
The Olympics are set from July 23 to August 8 with boxers Eumir Felix Marcial, Irish Magno, Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio, gymnast Carlos Yulo and pole vaulter EJ Obiena already qualified for the Games.
Tsukii, who won gold in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games along with Jamie Lim (women’s +61 kgs also of kumite), will also compete in June’s Paris qualifiers where the top three in each class advancing to the Olympics.
She paid from her own pocket her plane tickets, food and accommodation in Cacak tournament, except for the tournament fee which was shouldered by the Serbian karate federation.
Karate Pilipinas President Richard Lim congratulated Tsukii for a job well done.
“Every win is a win morale booster for her, it’s a step-by-step process,” said Lim, who is presently with the national karate team’s Istanbul training camp in Turkey.
“There’s a possibility Junna will join us here in Istanbul after the tournament in Lisbon,” Lim added.
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