KARATE chief Ricky Lim is banking on karatekas Jamie Christine Lim, Junna Tsukii and Sakura Alforte to carry the country’s medal hopes in the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games karate competitions opening on Oct. 5 at the Linping Sports Center Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China.
“Jamie, Junna and Sakura are our realistic model prospects in the Hangzhou Asian Games, and hopefully they will deliver,” said Lim of the three athletes who will spearhead the seven-man national karate squad.
Lim and Alforte were the country’s two karate gold medalists in the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games last May, ruling the women -61-kilogram kumite (sparring) and women’s individual kata (forms), respectively.
World Games gold medalist Tsukii, who won the silver in the women’s -50kg division in kata in the Cambodia SEA Games, has had extensive international experience and will bid to improve on her bronze medal finish in the 18th Asian Games in 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Lim and Tsukii have been training intensively for the last month in Istanbul, Turkey with the rest of the national team members while Alforte continues her build-up in Tokyo, Japan, according to Lim.
Completing the national karate squad are Arianne Brito, John Christian Lachica, Alwyn Batican and John Matthew Manantan, he added.
Lim said Ivan Christopher Agustin was dropped from the squad after he suffered an ACL injury on his right knee last month and is scheduled to undergo surgery.
“I feel so bad for Ivan because he worked so hard to prepare for the Hangzhou Asian Games,” he said of the karateka who took home a silver medal in men’s -84kg division in kata in the Cambodia Games.
He said the karatekas training in Turkey and Alforte are arriving on Sept. 24 and will leave for the Chinese port city of Hangzhou on Oct. 2, three days before the opening of the Asian Games karate tournament.
