Karate Pilipinas president Richard Lim hopes to use the winning momentum of Junna Tsukii to inspire more Filipino karatekas after the Filipina-Japanese won the historic gold medal in the World Games.
Lim said the federation has found the "role model" it needed through Tsukii to boost the morale of other athletes or the next generation of karatekas who want to follow in her footsteps.
"All it takes is determination and that will spark the athletes to strive more kasi mayroon na kaming role model na 'kinaya' niya (Tsukii)," said Lim. "Ngayon, I think lahat ng karatista sa Pilipinas ay very iunspired so we want to use capitalize that para lalo pang tumaas ang level ng karate sa Pilipinas."
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The 30-year-old Tsukii was only the second Filipino athlete to bag gold medal in the World Games next to 9-ball men's single champion Carlo Biado, who ruled the prestigious multi-sport event in Wroclaw, Poland in 2017.
Her being the icon of Philippine karate is much of the same image given to Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz in weightlifting and World Champion Carlos Yulo in gymnastics, among other elite athletes.
The karate chief believes that Tsukii's victory in the World Games also drew the attention of more Fil-foreign karatekas who expressed their desire to be with the federation.
But Lim insisted that there will be no special treatment given as all applicants will still go through the process of tryouts and the like.
He did not mention certain names but some Fil-Americans, Fil-Japanese, Fil-Swiss, and Fil-Canadians have shown interest in joining the national team.
"Wala kaming special treatment. They all need to come here to join the nationals and join the selections," added Lim, who also made mention of Jamie Lim and Remon Misu among those who have made an impact on the national team. "It's a process that everybody has to go through. Walang special, special sa'min."
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Tsukii herself wasn't an exception in the nationals despite bagging silver in the Asian Karate Championships and becoming a champion in the Karate1 Premier League last year.
Meanwhile, the reigning World Games champion is slated to return to Japan this weekend for training.
She will also compete in two Karate1 Premier Leagues in Baku, Azerbaijan and Los Angeles, California respectively slated September and October.