Junna Tsukii gets P1-M bonanza for Worlds gold

Junna Tsukii. –Photo from Junna Tsukii’s Facebook page

Junna Tsukii’s road to the top has been rough and hard. But now that she’s there, she doesn’t have just a World Games gold medal to show.

“I have shed so many tears that lakes have formed until I got here,” Tsukii said after defeating world No. 2 Yorgelis Salazar of Venezuela, 2-0, in the finals of the women’s kumite -50-kilogram division in Burmingham, Alabama recently. “But in just this moment, it all cleared up. I gave everything I had and I’m now a world champion.”

She also stands to receive a P1-million windfall from Malacañang, a standard reward for every Filipino world champ.

And with that, the distinction of possibly being the first athlete to receive such an incentive from new Philippine President Marcos, who congratulated her on his official Facebook page.

Tsukii’s gold is just the second for the country in its long participation in the meet, held a year after every Olympics and featuring events that are usually not on the list of the Summer Games.

Carlo Biado, who won the first gold, will be shooting for the summit again in the 9-ball event together with Rubilen Amit in the ladies division.

Muay world champion Phillip Delarmino, jiujitsu Asian queen Annie Ramirez, muay’s Leeana Bade and duathletes Kim Mangrobang, John Chicano and Fernando Casares are the others gunning for success in Birmingham.

Big things have been expected from Tsukii, a relentless workhorse who also won gold in the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games more than two months ago.

“I felt that we could make it through every emotional transition,” coach Okay Arpa, with whom Tsukii had a much-publicized rift with in 2019, said on his Facebook post. “Thank you for trusting and believing in both yourself and me.”