Sakie Tsukuda

Sakie Tsukuda (佃 咲江) is a Japanese track cyclist. 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.

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. 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.

Career highlights

 * 2006
 * 6th Asian Games (Sprint), Doha (QAT)
 * 2007
 * UCI B World Championships (Keirin), Cape Town (RSA)
 * UCI B World Championships (Sprint), Cape Town (RSA)
 * 2008
 * 12th Olympic Games (Sprint), Beijing (CHN)
 * 27th UCI World Championships (Sprint), Manchester (GBR)
 * 2013
 * Japanese Track Cycling Championships (Pursuit), Japan