On April 5-6 in Chiba, Japan the weekend of "International Karate Friendship" took place.
   The 7th Women's World Karate Championships, The 4th International Youth Karate Championships, 2008 International Senior Karate Championships, 2008 International Kata Championships were organised by IKO Kyokushinkaikan.
    Kancho Shokei Matsui opened the event, which gathered 1610 competitors from 20 countries and couple thousands of spectators. IKO Special Advisor Shihan Yuzo Goda as well as Sensei Kyosuke Machida were present at the event. 
   Former World Champion Hitoshi Kiyama lead the warming-up Kihon session for all the competitors.  International Department Director Shihan Katsuhito Gorai lead the judges seminar, were most of the european country representatives, including EKKO General Secretary Shihan Andre Drewniak took part.

Category -55kg
1. Elena Vorobiova - Russia
2. Miruyo Ito - Japan
3. Miyoko Kimura - Japan
3. Ayaka Shibuya - Japan

Category -65kg
1. Anastasia Khripunova - Russia
2. Dobroslawa Soltysik - Poland
3. Tetyana Fida - Ukraine
3. Proletina Koeva - Bulgaria

Category +65kg
1. Anna Kopyrina - Russia
2. Danaila Cherneva - Bulgaria
3. Agnieszka Sypien - Poland
3. Alina Aldatova - Russia

KATA WOMEN:

1. Miruyo Ito - Japan
2. Gergana Kostova - Bulgaria
3. Mayya Bragina - Russia
4. Izabela Sularz - Poland
5. Kristyna Dolgaleva - Russia
6. Aleksandra Radziewicz - Poland

KATA MEN:

1. Shota Takahashi - Japan
2. Masahiko Hatsukawa - Japan
3. Takamasa Tanaka - Japan
4. Maxim Talavla - Russia
5. Andrey Vasilevskiy - Russia
6. Emil Slabon - Poland

INTERNATIONAL SENIOR KARATE CHAMPIONSHIPS: 

Kumite Master +35 yr. Open Weight
1. Oleg Vekshin(Russia)
2. Kanya Moritomo(Japan)

Kumite  35～39 yr. -70kg
1. Minoru Ito (Japan)
2. Davoud Yousefi (Iran)
3. Kosei Baba (Japan)
3. Toshio Yasuike (Japan)

Kumite 35～39 yr. -80kg
1. Kazuhiko Kawase (Japan)
2. Stanislav Kryvoshapka (Ukraine)
3. Gou Hasegawa (Japan)
3. Toshiya Horii (Japan)

Kumite 35～39 yr. +80kg
1. Ghasem Sadeghi Hasnijeh (Iran)
2. Sergey Klochkov (Russia)
3. Ivan Ivanov (Bulgaria)
3. Joo-Hyun Kim (Korea)

Kumite +40yr. -70kg
1. Kazuhisa Kai (Japan)
2. Masamichi Hashimoto (Japan)
3. Fumihiro Kawaguchi (Japan)
3. Sugihiko Niizaki (Japan)

Kumite +40yr. -80kg
1. Takeshi Li (Japan)
2. Kouichi Akiyama (Japan)
3. Hiroki Oikawa (Japan)
3. Zbigniew Golinski (Poland)

Kumite  +40yr.  +80kg
1. Hideki Kuroiwa (Japan)
2. Bogdan Sawa (Poland)
3. Igor Timofeev (Russia)
3. Eric Snyders (South Africa)

   Like every year, the french magazine Karate-Bushido organized in Paris "Le festival des arts-martiaux", one of the most important show in the world of martial-arts.
   This year, in cooperation with IKO Honbu and the French Kyokushin Karate Organization, a special demonstration by top european fighters was presented. Alejandro Navarro (Spain), Lucian Gogonel (Romania), Krzysztof Habraszka (Poland), Zahari Damyanov (Bulgaria) and Julien Portiere (France) showed their special techniques breaking the boards and presenting their fighting combinations. Next, a mini tournament with exhibition matches took place, whe winner of which was current open category European Champion - Alejandro Navarro. Finally, Emil Kostov (Bulgaria) - former World Weight Category Champion made tameshiwari demonstration, breaking the ice blocks.
   Eurosport TV is planning to show a report from this event, which took place in Paris Bercy, on the evening of March 29.

   On February 9th an International Match 'Europe vs Poland' took place in Wroclaw (Poland) on occasion of the ending of a sport's carrer of 3-time European and 7-times Polish Champion - Sylwester Sypien. The event was opened by the President of Wroclaw.

   In the tournament participated: current world open weight vice champion Jan Soukup (Czech Republic), 3 time world champion Ewa Pawlikowska (Poland), brown medalist of world championships Zurine Eciolaza (Spain), several time European champions: Alejandro Navarro (Spain), Tomasz Najduch (Poland), Javier Lezcano (Spain), Krzysztof Habraszka (Poland) and Piotr Moczydłowski (Poland), as well as European championships medalist: Pablo Estensoro (Spain), Nicolae Stoian (Romania), Michal Krzak (Poland) and Karol Ciesluk (Poland). After many equal fights the Polish team defeated the European team 13:11.

   Shihan Andre Drewniak was the main judge. The fights were judged by: E. Konstancia (Holland), L. Lezcano (Spain), W. Munzer (Germany), M. Kubek (Austria), S. Urbanczyk (Germany),  J. Czerniec (Poland) and W. Stolarczyk (Poland). Technical judges were: Shihan W. Roj (Poland) and sensei E. Urbanczyk (Poland) as well as sensei B. Lubos (Poland).

   The match was organised by Wroclaw 'Masutatsu Oyama' Kyokushin Karate Club led by sensei Jacek Lamot.

   During the 9th World Open Karate Tournament, special meeting of EKKO country leaders took place in Tokyo. It was lead by Shihan Loek Hollander - IKO International Committee Member and EKKO Board Members: Shihan Antonio Pinero (President), Shihan Andre Drewniak (General Secretary) and Sensei Christoph Fischer (Treasurer).
   The main subject of discussion was creating of European Team, which will consist of 8 top fighters in each weight category and specially selected young talented fighters. Regular training camps are planned in Bulgaria, thanks to co-operation with sponsor of Bulgarian Kyokushin Karate Organisation lead by Sensei Hristo Traikov.
   First camp, with participation of 30 fighters and 8 coaches had place in Varna before the World Tournament. The first training session was lead by Dutch coaches: Shihan Hollander and Shihan Constancia, next were led by Shihan Drewniak and Sensei Roj (Poland), Shihan Pinero and Sensei Navarro (Spain) and Sensei Traikov and Sensei Asenov (Bulgaria). Main purpose of it was exchanging of training experience, focusing on fighting combinations and mitts excersises. EKKO Board expressed gratefulness to organiser of this successful project - Sensei Traikov.

GALLERY