PH bets crash out of 2021 Karate World Championships

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Filipina Karatekas Jamie Lim and Junna Tsukii have been eliminated in the ongoing 2021 Karate World Championships in Dubai.

Tsukii, the current world no. 2 ranked karateka of the Karate Premier League, surprisingly suffered an early exit in the grand stage when she lost to Bakhriniso Babaeva, 3-2, in just the second round of the tournament in the female -50 kg category.

Tsukii first passed the test in the elimination round after taking care of Sara Radicevska of Macedonia and was expected to go further but eventually got knocked out in just the second round.

Meanwhile, Lim failed in her bid for a bronze medal when she dropped in a 3-2 decision favoring Lynn Snel from the Netherlands in the -61 kg female Kumite category.

Lim still turned heads despite her exit after making it as far as the fourth round of the competition in the lower weight class before losing to Anita Serogina of Ukraine.

Aside from Lim and Tsukii, two other PH representatives in Sarah Pangilinan and Joco Vasquez also failed to clinch medals in their respective categories.

Pangilinan competed in the individual female kata event and made it up to the third round while Vasquez grabbed his opening win in the individual male kata event but bowed out of the next round.