
Southeast Asian Games gold medalists Jamie Christine Lim and Junna Tsukii will lead the national team contingent that is set to leave next week for a two-month training camp in Turkey.
Lim said Friday that the training camp in Turkey is part of their preparation for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Paris, France set in June.
“Ito na yung last push for our qualifiers (This is the last push for our qualifiers),” said Lim in the weekly Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Hour @Radyo Pilipinas online sports show.
“With this it’s really leveled up because it’s for the world, it’s for the Tokyo Olympics. It’s the biggest sporting event. I know it’s going to be difficult, it’s really prestigious,” added the daughter of PBA legend Samboy Lim.
Lim is currently inside the bubble in Calamba, Laguna.
She has been there since middle of January with the men’s karatedo team that includes Ivan Agustin, Shariff Afif, Alwyn Batican and Jason Macaalay. They are set to fly to Paris on March 15.
Tsukii, who is competing in the -50kg women’s kumite, is training in Japan, but is expected to be in Paris for the training camp, and so is -61kg women’s kumite campaigner Joane Orbon, who is training in the US.
Lim said that she is competing in the same women's +61kg kumite event in the OQT where she captured gold in the SEA Games. She said about 100 athletes are expected to join in her category alone.
“It’s going to be big because there are 100 participants per category. They’ll take the top four… gold, silver and two bronze medalists, and they’ll compete in a round robin. Top three will advance in the Tokyo Olympics,” said Lim.
“The seven slots (per category) were already taken for the Tokyo Olympics, so only three left.”