The city of Gotemba (Japan) hosted the first edition of the “Karatedo Mt.Fuji Junior Championship”. Established as a legacy of Karate’s Olympic presentation at the Tokyo 2020 Games, the event gathered youngsters to compete in a celebration of the popularity of the sport in the country.

Located next to Mount Fuji in central Japan, the city of Gotemba hosted the Italian Karate team in preparation for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The legacy of the sport in the city and the passion that citizens of Gotemba showed towards Karate were highlighted at the tournament.

WKF General Secretary Toshihisa Nagura participated in the opening ceremony via video message. Mr Nagura stressed the many values of Karate and stated the WKF’s efforts to take Karate back to the Olympic programme.

Olympic Games medallists Viviana Bottaro and Luigi Busa also sent video messages to thank the city for their support. The event was attended by Japan Karatedo President Takashi Sasakawa.

The World Karate Federation has appointed actor and KIF Global co-founder Shin Koyamada as Karate’s Ambassador in Los Angeles.

SHIN KOYAMADA: «IT IS MY PRIVILEGE AND HONOUR TO BE APPOINTED AS WKF AMBASSADOR»

Originally from Japan, a black belt in Karate and Los Angeles resident for the last 20 years, Shin Koyamada is the co-founder and global chairman of KIF (Koyamada International Foundation).

Actor, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Shin Koyamada became best known worldwide for his film debut co-starring in “The Last Samurai” and starring in Disney Channel’s Movie “Wendy Wu Homecoming Warrior”.

Seguis leyendo WKF appoints Shin Koyamada as Karate’s Ambassador in Los Angeles

The 2022 World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships concluded today in Konya (Turkiye). In a celebration of the strength of Karate among youngsters, the event finished with Japan topping the medal table of the tournament with a tally of 13 medals including ten golds.

Japan wrapped up their impressive performance with five golds on the final day. Mirisa Ohuchi opened the gold medal count of the day for Japan when she became the new World champion in U21 Female Kata. The Japanese Kata ace defeated Damayanti Marzella Sekar of Indonesia in the final (26.14 to 24.74)

The final of U21 Male Kata was claimed by Sakichi Abe of Japan over Duc Anh Nguyen of Vietnam by 26.54 to 25.12

Japan dominated the Kata categories since the Japanese delegation won all the gold medals in Kata including individual and team competitions. 

Seguis leyendo Japan top medal table of 2022 World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships

 

The WKF has announced the competition calendar for 2023. Following its approval by the WKF Congress last week in Konya (Turkiye), the list of events for next year has been revealed.

Karate fans will have plenty of highlights to mark in red next year. The Karate community will be setting its sights in Budapest (Hungary) where the World Senior Championships will take place from October 24 to 29.

In addition to Karate’s biggest event, the sport will again be featured in all the multi-sport events of the Olympic cycle of the year. The European Games (June 30 to July 1), the African Games (Karate dates to be confirmed), the Pan American Games (November 3 to 5), the Asian Games (Karate dates to be confirmed), and the Pacific Games (Karate dates to be confirmed) will all have Karate in the sports programmes.

Seguis leyendo Competition calendar for 2023 announced