KARATEKA Jamie Christine Lim showed vastly improved form yesterday, beating three tough foes before absorbing a close 1-2 quarterfinals loss to Ukrainian Anita Serogina in the women’s minus 61kg division of the 25th World Senior Karate Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Competing in her world meet debut, Lim opened her campaign with a rousing 4-2 win over Russia’s Alana Kochieva, then showed poise under pressure by pulling off majority decision victories over France’s Laura Sivert and Japan’s Shimada Sarara in the next two rounds.
But the 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist found her match in Serogina, a gold medalist in the Cairo, Egypt leg of the Karate Premier League 1 last September, and was relegated to the repechage round today.
Serogina, a 2017 World Games silver medalist, advanced to the gold medal round on Saturday with a majority decision win over Canada’s Haya Jumaa in the semifinals. She will tackle Serbian Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Jovana Prekovic, a 3-2 semifinal winner over Slovakia’s Ingrida Suchankova, in the title match.
“She (Lim) is waiting for her foe in the repechage match tomorrow (Thursday) to see if she can fight for a bronze medal on Saturday,” said karate chief Ricky Lim, proud of how the daughter of basketball legend Avelino “Samboy” Lim had fared in her initial world outing.
Set to compete last night was Karate Premier League 1 double gold medalist Junna Tsukii, who loomed as one of the favorites in the minus 50kg class considering her extensive competition in the elite series organized by the World Karate Federation.
