In 2007, at the 9th World Karate Championship two of the very best European fighters faced each other in the quarter final. Gergana Atanasova (Bulgaria) and Edit Ábrahám (Hungary) Both “always” to see at the EC podium – like in 2007, both in the EC final, Ábrahám in middleweight and Atanasova in heavyweight.
LIVE TODAY! One of the top nations in Europe will decide who will represent the nation in the main tournaments coming up, such as European Championship in Georgia this June 2021. Profiled top fighters will meet on the tatami, divided into five categories for women and men each. Kata is also on the program.
The 9th World Championship Shinkyokushin 2007 – Valeri Dimitrov, Bulgaria and Zsolt Balogh, Hungary face each other in their 4th fight of the tournament. Both had notable wins, and being young up and coming fighters, they did make a great impression. Although Dimitrov was the favorite, the fight shows greats skills and technical variations – a key to their success.
Two World Champions, and two highly merited top fighters. To be correct, when this fights was fought, in 2016 and 2014 – Juri Minamihara was not World Champion – yet. “Only” runner up in the 11th World Championship held in 2015. Later on Minamihara took the World tittle in the weight category in 2017 (middleweight), and in the Open Weight World Championship in 2019. As for Emi Shoguchi, World Champion in 2011, and world champion in weight category 2017 (Super heavyweight) And for both, this is only some of their high merits packed record.
European Championship – Open weight in 2013, held in Oradea, Romania. Open-weight will always be interesting since we get fights across the regular weight-categories. That was the case in the final, where Marius Ilas (Romania) fought Antanas Klibavicius (Lithuania) We will look into the quarterfinal: Maciej Mazur (Poland) vs Jimmie Collin (Sweden)
From the European championship in 2018, so this is nothing new – but we will give it some attention anyway. The European region and WKO expand and develop – and in 2018 we did get a new set of weight categories in the EC. This gave us some new match ups. One between two World Champions: Salahat Hasanov vs Valeri Dimitrov.
It is twenty years since Valeri Dimitrov entered the European Championship in Spain – his first European Championship. Since that time he has been the “one and only” We tried to gather some of the EC finals trough the twenty years, not every final can be find – but e did a decent try. The EC finals are from weight category championship.
Once again the EC are up on the schedule, and as all know, the EC are a qualifying tournament to the World Championship in 2022. Deadline for booking (hotel,travel) registration, must of course be in good time in relation to the event itself – one have to see this as a big challenge. Some countries – as we speak, can not even come their Dojo’s to train, due to the Covid-19 restrictions set by the authorities.We are filled with enthusiasm – but also many questions.
This year compare to last year, has been really a big contrast. due to the pandemic that has – and still are, a huge challenge for us all – and looking back at 2019, with several major tournaments, 12th World Championship(s) to top it all. Championships of any kind are not more important than life itself, and it has to come in that order. Well some great tournaments did go trough in 2020 – and we will take a closer look at some of them,and maybe some new faces to see..
As always, we are impressed looking at the full-contact fighters that enter the tatami over and over again. But this year, due to the pandemic that has – and still are, a huge challenge for us all. Championships of any kind are not more important than life itself, and it has to come in that order. Well some great tournaments did go trough – and we will take a closer look at some of them – women’s first.
