Philippines karatekas begin final push for Tokyo

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine karatedo team will fly to Istanbul, Turkey on Feb. 22 for the final push in its search for Olympic berths.

Karate Pilipinas president Richard Lim said Jamie Lim, Sharief Afif, Ivan Agustin and Alvin Bactican will join Junna Tsukii and Joane Orbon in Istanbul where they will hold a three-month training camp.

Lim, Afif, Agustin and Bactican are currently training inside the Inspire Sports Academy bubble in Calamba, Laguna while Tsukii will be coming from Japan, and Orbon from the United States.

Interestingly, the Nationals will get to shoot two birds with one stone as the Premier League, where Olympic ranking points are at stake, was moved from Portugal on Feb. 14 to Turkey from March 12-14.

From Istanbul, the squad will proceed to Paris, France in early June for the final Olympic qualifier where the top three in each division advance to the quadrennial event.

There are four ways to make it to Tokyo – finishing in the top 4 of the Olympic ranking system, top 2 in the regional, as a wild card and top 3 in Paris.

“We have a strong chance in Paris since most of the top players should be qualified by then,” said Lim.

Karatedo will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo.