As the Karate competition at The World Games 2022 is about to start, the final list of participants has been confirmed. No less than 32 Olympians will compete in Birmingham including two gold medallists. The event will also have eight World champions fighting for the crowns.

In Kata categories, Olympic Games gold medallist and World champion Sandra Sanchez of Spain spearheads the list of frontrunners.

Olympic Games medallists Damian Quintero of Spain and Mo Sheung Grace Lau of Hong Kong are also hoping to cause a sensation in Birmingham.

World champions Douglas Brose of Brazil, Dastonbek Otabolaev of Kazakhstan, and Youssef Badawy of Egypt lead the way in Male Kumite.

The male categories in the fighting discipline of Karate also have Olympic Games medallists Darkhan Assadilov of Kazakhstan, Karoly Gabor Harspataki of Hungary, and Stanislav Horuna of Ukraine as favourites.  

Meanwhile, in Female Kumite, the quest for gold is expected to be thrilling with many of the biggest names of the sport participating in the event.

Seguis leyendo Karate ready to take The World Games by storm as final list of participants confirmed →

Karate will be returning to the sports programme of the Games of the Small States of Europe for the 2025 edition of the event.

The General Assembly of the Small States of Europe approved the list of sports to be included in the programme of the 2025 Games in Andorra. Following this decision, Karate is returning to the programme of the event after not being included in the 2023 Games to be held in Malta.

Karate was set to make its debut in the Games of the Small States of Europe in the 2021 edition of the event which was initially slated to be held in Andorra. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the whole long-term schedule of the Games of the Small States of Europe was reconsidered, and the Games in Andorra were moved to 2025, with the 2023 event being held in Malta.

The decision of the General Assembly puts Karate in the programme of the event thus reconfirming Karate’s presence in all the multi-sport continental events.

EKF and WKF President Antonio Espinós said:

“Karate is one of the most well-known and most widely practised disciplines in the world. We believe that our sport deserves to be included in all the multi-sport events in the world. Moreover, we are convinced that the many principles of Karate, such as respect, honour and sporting spirit elevate the value of these events. We are delighted that karatekas from all the small states of Europe will find the opportunity to demonstrate the greatness of Karate in the 2025 Games.”

“I would like to thank the Small States of Europe Karate Federation and its president Andreas Vasileiou and the President of the Andorra Karate Federation Xavier Herver for their efforts to reconfirm Karate’s presence in the programme of the 2025 Games of the Small States of Europe.”

Karate is one of the sports on the programme of the anticipated event in Bali. The discipline, with its modality of Kata, returns to the multi-sport event after the success of the first edition of the ANOC World Beach Games in 2019.

More than 1,200 athletes from 97 NOCs competed at Qatar 2019 and similar global participation will be expected next year in Bali. The Games will be a celebration of beach and water sports and will include the ten disciplines of the Core Programme – Aquathlon, Beach Handball, Beach Soccer, Beach Tennis, Beach Volley 4×4, Beach Water polo, Beach Wrestling, Individual Kata, Expression Kiteboarding and Open Water Swimming 5km– as well as additional disciplines proposed by the Organising Committee, to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Damian Quintero and Sandra Sanchez of Spain became the first-ever gold medallists in Beach Kata after prevailing in the ANOC World Beach Games 2019. Fatemeh Sadeghi of Iran and Yi Wang from Chinese Taipei claimed the silver medals at the event.

WKF President Antonio Espinós said: 

“Karate showed its outstanding sporting spirit and its excellence at the inaugural edition of the ANOC World Beach Games in Qatar. We are delighted to be part of this fantastic event again and we are convinced that the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games in Bali will be a sound success. The event in Bali will be one of the highlights of the year and we can’t wait to continue bringing great added value to this anticipated multi-sport event”.

CLICK HERE to go to the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games micro-site. 

Headed by EKF and WKF President Antonio Espinós, the plenary session of European Karate’s governing body analysed the upcoming events in the continent and reviewed the progress of the sport in Europe.

EKF and WKF President Antonio Espinós said:

“We have had a very difficult couple of years, but we have managed to give athletes the opportunity to compete. We have been committed to offering them the best conditions to continue their development as athletes and we have continued to organise events despite the complicated situations due to the pandemic.”

“We need to keep on working the way that we have been doing it over the last few years. The EKF is a model federation, as the strength of Karate in Europe shows. However, we should not be satisfied with this progress; we need to improve more and more, we need to continue developing our sport and taking Karate to higher levels as we have done in the last years.”

The event was organised by the Turkish Karate Federation with its president Aslan Abid Uguz in attendance who in his address to the congress hoped for the many representatives of European National Federations participating in the event to enjoy the tournament and the city of Gaziantep.

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The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) formalizes the collaboration of the two entities to implement far-reaching initiatives to use Karate to empower vulnerable sectors of the population, especially girls and young women who have suffered any form of abuse.

The WKF and KIF agree to implement joint development programmes in localized territories and to strengthen initiatives aimed at integrating the practice of Karate in activities to ultimately improve the living conditions of disadvantaged populations.

WKF President Antonio Espinós said:

“The WKF is committed to doing its utmost to use the core principles of Karate to fight discrimination of any kind. In particular, the idiosyncrasy of Karate makes our sport the right tool to help girls and women who have suffered from gender-based violence. As the defence of people in need is one of the main elements of our strategic plan, this agreement with KIF puts us on the right path to contribute to a better world and to further demonstrate the many values and the greatness of Karate. It is also one more indication that Karate is very much in line with the Agenda 2020+5.”

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