Junna Tsukii will take a far totally different method when she competes within the Asian championships, the place she is without doubt one of the scorching favorites for the 50-kilogram gold medal. —SHERWIN VARDELEON
Junna Tsukii is utilizing her string of worldwide defeats to grow to be higher as she units her sights on profitable the following huge event forward: The seventeenth Asian Karate Championships in two weeks in Kazakhstan.
The world No. 5 and Asian No. 1 within the ladies’s 50-kilogram division believes that she has skilled sufficient and realized her classes in previous matches and is ripe for a gold medal within the prestigious occasion set Dec. 19-22 in Almaty.
“My coaches have helped me enhance my program, I’m very excited,” mentioned Tsukii, the present Southeast Asian Video games champ and Asian Video games bronze winner who will lead Crew Philippines, through the latest PSC Hour.
“The perfect fighters [in my division come from] Iran. China is all the time powerful and naturally, Kazakhstan, which is the host nation. However I’ve gained over them in some tournaments,” Tsukii mentioned.
Tsukii mentioned “everybody has a powerful probability” of profitable in Kazakhstan, referring to the remainder of Crew Philippines who’re together with her now within the Baguio Metropolis bubble coaching camp.
I’m very glad to be coaching with them,” mentioned Tsukii who, previous to coming to Baguio, skilled solo in Japan and Serbia for a number of months.
Tsukii, ranked second within the Karate Premier League, blamed over-eagerness for her latest failures for Crew Philippines, particularly within the 2019 version of the event the place she bombed out early like within the Olympics and Dubai World Championships.
“I used to be too keen as a result of I do know my efficiency there would lead me to qualify for the Olympics,” she mentioned. “So my actions had been stiff and I didn’t loosen up.”
Born to a Filipino mom in Pasay Metropolis, however dwelling in her father’s dwelling nation of Japan, Tsukii clearly is aware of what to do that time.
“Typically the largest battle you’ll face is towards your self and never towards an opponent,” mentioned Tsukii. “However to beat that I all the time think about the victory after all of the hardships.” INQ
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