2021 are history, tournaments held and champions crowned. Looking back trough the year we have many good fights and tournaments, mainly European Championships, All Japan Opens and that category – not many Open nationals. We take a look into the men’s division!
In this case we will start with a fight from the Open Baltic Cup held in Kaliningrad, one can say that location fits the name. Very high level and it is an open weight tournament. Previous years we have seen a good international, but not unexpected strong Russian dominance. That was the case also this year, but not the same fighters took the top spot this year. We have a fight earlier in the tournament, Danil Goryushkin vs Igor Zagainov both Russia. It this fight, judging will be a factor, and we was most interested in the second Waza-ari..
European Championship in Georgia Shinkyokushin held an incredible high level. Taking a look at the line up and the merits among the top fighters, showed that top of this region is the top of the world. And as we mention “World”, the final between two world champions should be a good choice to watch. Valeri Dimitrov /Bulgaria vs Salahat Hasanov /Azerbaijan in the -85 kg category was a rerun from the EC 2018, and even so that the results are well known – this is a fight that one can see many times – regardless of the results.
37th Open Tournament Weight All Japan Karatedo Championships
Daisuke Tada (Byakuren Kaikan) vs Yuta Goto (Karate MAC) Both very active and can challenge top fighters – in the hardest tournaments. The faced each other at least two times this year 2021, first time in this video – the final, and later in the final of 13th JKJO All Japan Open. The got one win each – so if you wonder how it went, take a look at the video and figure it out. Both among top 8 in the 53rd All Japan Open Shinkyokushin, strong fighters – very active.
European Championship IKO with the veteran Alejandro Navarro / Spain vs Alexei Fedoseev / Russia. Everyone knows – and have seen the rules that make the IKO stand out a little different when it comes to the fight picture, tactics and styles. But it works, the fights are dynamic and have a nerve, because it can turn fast. This year it was one category more, the -60 kg was added. We are going into the -90 kg.
1st EFKO European Open-Weight held in Lithuania. This time Russia and Kazakhstan was included in the tournament, and that gave us some new set ups. Russia – one of the leading Kyokushin nations in the World have countless top fighters. In this championship KWU World Champion Victor Belyaev entered the championship. One of the favorites and reign Open-weight champion Shinkyokushin – Eventas Gužauskas. Belyaev with the stronger merits, Gužauskas with the size and weight in his favor.
6th JFKO All Japan Open could once again serve us a very strong all round line up. Japan have so many strong fighters from different parts of the country and from various organisations. Yuhei Ashitaka, All Japan Open champion and two times runner up i the World Cup Rengokai met in the quarterfinal a very strong opponent with some with a similar record – Kembu Iriki. Very solid fighters and know how to deal great damage – specially to the legs. Sit back and see.. no feel the the lowkicks.
It was organized several European Championship this year, some of them at the same day in matter of fact. KWU EC was held in Bulgaria, Varna. The support of the tournament was surprising low with under 50 fighters 7 categories that was reduced from 9 to 7 since last time. Luckily could one see that the top level was as expected: high. Vi followed the number one favorite in the -80 kg category reign EC and World Champion Artem Nazaretyan / Russia. In the five fighters category, one could not necessary see anyone that could challenge him – but Szymon Olpinski / Poland had some other plans..
53rd All Japan Open Shinkyokushin – Daiki Kato vs Nariyoshi Tada met in the quarterfinal, Kato with a little more more merits in his baggage than Tada. Tada on his side has developed strongly in recent times, and moved noticeably forward in the tournament. This edition was very demanding, and the top eight have very good all-round knowledge.
We are looking forward to a better time, a time that not will hold us back. But trough this pandemic the struggle to keep it going has been tested, and tested fro real. Incredible amount of work are put down to make things happen. Many have been forced to take a step back, but we will move forward when the time is right. Just like in a fight – we have been inspired by fighters and athletes trough the year, as we have seen on these clips. We are not afraid of moving slowly forward, watching carefully that we not are standing still.