Tsukii trains in own camp

As long as she performs well and won’t be distracted

Junna Tsukii opted to train in her own camp in a bid to punch a slot in the Tokyo Olympics this July.

Karate Pilipinas president Ricky Lim yesterday said the 29-year-old karateka sought permission to run her own training camp under the tutelage of his father — former national team mentor Shin Tsukii — in Saitama, Japan.

With that, she will no longer join the national karate squad in its two-month training camp in Istanbul starting 15 March.

“She has previously requested to continue training in Japan because she is more comfortable there,” said Lim, referring to his Filipino-Japanese ward that clinched the gold medal in the women’s 50kg kumite event of the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019.

If that will make her comfortable and at ease, then why not?

Lim said Tsukii is looking to book an Olympic ticket through continental qualification.

He said she never really took a break in training as she stayed in Japan even during the height of the pandemic in the Philippines.

Now, she’s No. 10 in the world and an impressive performance in the Karate1 Premier League in Istanbul slated on 12 March would boost her chances for the Olympics.

“If that will make her comfortable and at ease, then why not? As long as she performs well and won’t be distracted,” said Lim, also a former national team member.

“We don’t have any problems there because her father was a former coach of the national team and he is really good.”

Still, Lim said that they are determined to convince Tsukii to join her fellow Olympic hopefuls like SEA Games gold medalist Jamie Lim, Ivan Agustin, Sharief Afif, Alwyn Batican and Joane Orbon in the Turkey camp before heading to their lone Olympic qualifying tournament in Paris in June.

“We’ll still talk about her final plans when we meet her in Turkey,” Lim said.

“Hopefully, she could be comfortable with us and we might convince her to join us.”