JUNNA Tsukii suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Ivet Goranova of Bulgaria and crashed out of contention in the 2021 Karate Olympic Qualification Tournament in Paris.
Tsukii bowed out after conceding two points on a wazari by Goranova with 40 seconds left in their women’s -55 kilogram round-of-32 bout.
The Filipina karateka, who won a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games two years ago, was one of the favorites to claim a berth in Tokyo at No. 12 in the Olympic rankings.
The medalists in the qualifying tournament gained an outright spot to the Olympics.
Tsukii still has a chance as two more places are still up for grabs in each of the weight categories which will be determined by the World Karate Federation.
Jason Macaalay also failed to make it in the medal rounds of the men’s 67 kilogram class after losing to Firdovski Farzaliyev of Azerbaijan, 1-0.
Macaalay won over Omar Laatar of the Netherlands, 2-0, in his first bout.
SEA Games gold medalist Jamie Lim, Joane Orbon, Ivan Christopher Agustin, and Sharief Afif will be seeing action in the coming days in the kumite event.
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