MANILA, Philippines – National karateka Junna Tsukii has secured the support of Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William “Butch” Ramirez in bid to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
“Now after the SEA Games, I talked to PSC, so they’re helping me and they gave me the permission to join Olympic qualifying tournaments and trainings, so next year, I want to prepare for my Olympic road and my plan is to train in other countries who have strong players,” independent Manila-based news portal, Rappler quoted Tsukii as saying.
Tsukii needs to get a gold or two silvers in any of the six qualifying tournaments to get into the top 16 women who will qualify based on their world ranking by April 6, 2020.
The Filipino-Japanese karateka will have an early start to 2020 as she would be competing in the Karate 1-Series A in Santiago, Chile before flying to Paris, France for the Karate-1 Premier League, said the Rappler report.
In between the two major competitions, Tsukii will join a joint training camp along with other international karatekas, it added.
After revealing that she was bullied by national team head coach Okay Arpa upon winning the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold, Tsukii said she wanted to fix the estranged relationship between herself and the Turkish coach.
