FOILED in her bid to compete in the Tokyo Olympics last year, Fil-Japanese karateka Junna Tsukii will have a grand global stage to showcase her skills as the country’s first qualifier in the sport at The World Games set July 7 to 17 in Birmingham, Alabama, according to karate chief Ricky Lim.
“Based on her (Tsukii’s) current rankings of No. 4 in the World Karate Federation in her division, pasok na siya,” Lim, the Karate Sports Pilipinas Federation Inc. President, said yesterday.
The 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist is now No. 4 in the women’s minus 50kg division of the WKF ratings, with the Nos. 1-3 as of today, March 1, qualified to compete in the 11th edition of the sportsfest featuring mostly non-Olympic sports, based on the world karate body’s qualifying rules.
The champion, runner-up and one bronze medalist from the Senior World Karate Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in November last year also earned tickets to The World Games according to the same qualifying system, Lim explained.
Since Germany’s Shara Hubrich, currently No. 3 in the world ratings, was also a silver medalist at the worlds, Junna will be promoted to the No. 3 spot, with Kazakhstan’s Moldir Zhangbyrbay going up to No. 2 from No. 3 and Turkey’s Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu qualifying as the No. 1 in the standings.
Hubrich was the losing finalist to Japanese champion Miho Mihayara in the battle for the gold medal, while Ukraine’s Katerina Kryva bagged the bronze medal by beating Zhangbyrbay 5-3 in the faceoff between the losing semifinalists.
