On Saturday morning, August 22, there was an online meeting of representatives of the National Organizations and the Branch Chief of the European Karate Organization. The meeting began with a merger with Japan at the Headquarters of the World Karate Organization and talks with the President of WKO Kenji Midori and the Open World Champion 2019 Yuji Shimamoto.
President Kenji Midori talked about the current situation in Japan along with the situation related to the coronavirus and expressed his hope for a quick normalization of the situation in the world so that karate training and promotion could be carried out, and preparations for the postpones of the 1st Fullcontact Karate World Championships in 2021 in Osaka and the 7 weighted World Championships in Poland in 2022. World Champion Yuji Shimamoto explained how it is currently maintaining the sports form of the fighters of the Japanese national team.
Then the European representatives presented the situation in individual European countries, the Vice President of EKO Romas Vitkauskas and the Chairman of the Referee Committee Michael Soderkvist announced the preparations for the second European online kata tournament. EKO General Secretary Remigiusz Karpinski presented the new EKO calendar for 2021 adopted by the EKO Board.
EKO President Koen Scharremberg presented the new EKO website and thanked the participants of the meeting for their efforts to maintain training and sports activity in Europe.
The current situation is surprising for everyone, but karate training prepares us all to overcome difficulties, thanks to willpower and self-denial, we will survive this difficult period and soon we will return to normal karate training in the dojo, international training and international tournaments.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine.
