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Karate: Pinay Junna Tsukii’s hunt for Olympic berth to begin at Istanbul league

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Dennis Gasgonia, ABS-CBN News

<h3>Teammates train in Turkey for Olympic qualifiers</h3><p>Japan-based Filipina karateka Junna Tsukii will be heading to Istanbul, Turkey to boost her chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, the sport&#x27;s national governing body said Thursday.</p><p>The 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist will compete in the top-notch Premier League tournament beginning March 11 with hopes of making it to the top 4 in the Olympic ranking system and gain a berth at the Tokyo Games.</p><p>Tsukii, 29, is currently tied for 10th with Bakhriniso Babaeva of Uzbekistan with 3,712.50 points in the World Karate Federation <a href="http://setopen.sportdata.org/wkfranking/ranking_main.php#ranking">rankings</a>, which means Tsukii has a lot of ground to cover.</p><p>The top 4 are led by Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey (11,542.50 points), Miho Miyahara of Japan (6,300), Bettina Plank of Austria (5,377.50), and Sara Bahmanyar of Iran (5,272.50).</p><p>But Richard Lim, president of Karate Pilipinas, said Tsukii has a good chance at the Premier League, because she has been training nonstop in Japan even while at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>&quot;She&#x27;s training in Japan with our former coach, &#x27;yung father niya,&quot; said Lim. &quot;We allowed her to compete because she has been training there with partners ever since.&quot; </p><p>Meanwhile, other karate national team members are training at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba city, Laguna, to regain their form.</p><p>Lim said they initially planned on sending the team to the Premier League, but the lockdown has hampered their preparations.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/25/21/karate-james-delos-santos-piles-up-lead-in-mens-online-kata-rankings">Karate: James Delos Santos piles up lead in men&#x27;s online kata rankings</a></li></ul><p>&quot;We were online training for over a year. They just started with face-to-face training but of course after being stuck in online training for almost a year without sparring partners, their distancing and reaction time were affected,&quot; Lim said.</p><p>Instead of fielding the group in the Premier League, they will train intensively also in Istanbul this March, part of preparations for the Olympic qualifiers in Paris. </p><p>&quot;They will be staying there until March 15, then come back to Manila. Then they will leave for Paris on June 1 for the Olympic qualifying,&quot; said Lim.</p><p>National team members included for the training camp in Turkey are SEA Games gold medalist Jamie Lim, Sharif Afif, Alwyn Batican and Ivan Agustin.</p><p>Another karateka, US-based Filipina Joan Orbon will fly directly to Turkey to meet the team together with Tsukii in their training camp.</p><p>&quot;Orbon, we did not let her join the bubble training anymore because of the quarantine requirement. We will just meet her in Istanbul,&quot; said Richard Lim.</p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jPrkE0lxWzA?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>2019 SEA Games gold medalist Jamie Lim will also be part of the Turkey training camp next month.</p>

2019 SEA Games gold medalist Jamie Lim will also be part of the Turkey training camp next month.

Karate: Pinay Junna Tsukii’s hunt for Olympic berth to begin at Istanbul league

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Karate: Pinay Junna Tsukii’s hunt for Olympic berth to begin at Istanbul league

Dennis Gasgonia,

ABS-CBN News

Published Feb 25, 2021 07:32 PM PHT

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PH karate

Junna Tsukii

2021 Tokyo Olympics

Tokyo Games

Jamie Lim

2019 Southeast Asian Games

SEA Games

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