MANILA — Filipina karateka Junna Tsukii notched a gold medal on Sunday night in Cairo, Egypt, in the women’s kumite -50 kilogram division of the 2021 Karate1 Premier League.
The Filipina-Japanese judoka won the gold medal after a 2-1 victory in the championship round over hometown bet Areeg Rashed.
Tsukii and Areeg were locked at 1-1 until the former landed a “Yuko” – a punch to the opponent’s head or body – with six seconds remaining.
Areeg requested a review of the call through the Video Assistant Referee, but the game officials upheld the awarding of the precarious point to Tsukii.
Prior to defeating Rashed, Tsukii walloped another Egyptian karateka, Reem Ahmed Salama, in Sunday’s quarterfinals round.
The 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Tsukii also stunned Austria’s Aleksandra Grujic and Venezuela’s Yorgelis Salazar in the preliminary round, finishing as the top-seeded player in her category.
This was Tsukii’s third gold medal of the year, following his victories in the Karate1 Premier League in Lisbon, Portugal, in May and the Golden Belt Tournament in Cacak, Serbia, in March.
The Filipina-Japanese athlete is ranked seventh in her division in the latest World Karate Federation rankings.
Despite having two gold medals earlier this year, Tsukii failed to book a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after faltering in her Olympic Qualification Tournament match./PN
