Sakie_Tsukuda
Sakie Tsukuda
Japanese cyclist
Sakie Tsukuda (佃 咲江, Tsukuda Sakie, born October 31, 1985 in Bihoro, Hokkaidō) is a Japanese track cyclist.[1] She mounted a spirited challenge over South Africa's Tracey van Niekerk for the women's sprint gold medal at the 2007 UCI B World Championships in Cape Town, and later represented Japan at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[2]
Tsukuda qualified for her first Japanese squad, as a 22-year-old, in the women's sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by receiving a berth from the UCI "B" World Championships in Cape Town, South Africa.[2] After grabbing the twelfth and final seed in 12.134 (an average speed of 59.337 km/h) on the morning prelims, Tsukuda lost her first round match-up to Great Britain's top medal favorite Victoria Pendleton in a spectacular fashion, finished third in her repechage heat behind Belarus' Natallia Tsylinskaya and Cuba's Lisandra Guerra, and then placed twelfth overall in a single four-rider 200 m race to round out the field.[3][4][5]
