Junna Tsukii fails to earn Tokyo Olympics slot

Filipino-Japanese karateka Junna Tsukii will not be going to the Olympics after failing to be included in the official list of complete participants that was recently released.

Instead of Tsukii, the World Karate Federation gave the slots in the women’s -55kgs division to Egypt’s Radwa Sayed and Austria’s Bettina Plank.

The WKF also didn’t allocate a ticket via tripartite invitation.

The options became Tsukii’s last resort to go to Tokyo after recently losing at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Paris, France.

The 29-year-old Tsukii posted on Facebook, “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t get a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics. I have done everything for this goal, and I’m full of sadness that I cannot respond to the feelings of those who supported me.”

Tsukii thanked her supporters for being there for her throughout the years.

“I fought away from my family and friends for four years, so I will take a little break and spend time with them. Maraming maraming salamat po.”

Among the 10 who qualified in Tsukii’s weight class aside from Sayed and Plank are Miho Miyahara of Japan (host country slot), Turkey’s Serap Ozcelik, Iran’s Sara Bahmanyar, Ukraine’s Anzhelika Terliuga and Chinese Taipei’s Wen Tzu-yun (Olympic standings), and Bulgaria’s Ivet Goranova, Kazakhstan’s Moldir Zhangbyrbay and Russia’s Anna Chernysheva (Olympic qualification).