Chief Referee's Reports
WIKF World Championships and Karate 1 Premier League - German Open
27 - 29 September 2013
Busy weekend for the EKF referees dept. with the German premier league open and WIK
Busy weekend for the EKF referees dept. with the German premier league open and WIKF championships in Crawley being held at the same time reports below.
WIKF World Championships, Kumite 27 - 29/09/13
24 Referees from the EKF were invited to officiate at the championships, with another 18 international officials from all over the world.
With the high standard of international competitors, it gave a chance for new and experienced referees to get a feeling of European/world competition.
Organized by Andy Michaelides, Bouts were timed to perfection with final showcases throughout the 3 days...well done.
A special thank you must also go to Kjell Jacobsen, from Norway,who was part of the 3 man referees commission, along with myself and Billy Brennan, who gave feedback to all the officials throughout the 3 days.
Karate 1 Premier League - German Open - Referee report by Brian Noble,,,BIKO referees
In attendance: Brian Noble and Nigel Blood
Day 1
A day of travelling on Friday, flying out from Birmingham to Frankfurt and then transferring to Hanau where the tournament was to take place over the weekend. A short referee's briefing took place on Friday evening at the HQ hotel, with tatami allocations given for the following day. We were also told there were 54 different countries represented at the tournament and over 600 competitors. There were also over 75 officials, two thirds of which had traveled from all over the world to attend and support the German Federation officials.
With many of the athletes national squad members and a high number of national, european and world qualified officials this is clearly a tournament that is well regarded across the world.
Day 2
An early start, with officials required to be at the venue by 8am for an 8.30am start. Arriving at the venue lots of athletes were warming up and it was good to see a few competitors from England had also made the trip to compete against some of the best karateka in the world. Kata started the day and it was immediately obvious the standard was going to be very high across all categories. Kumite started around mid-day and again the quality of competitors was good.
There was however still a lot of holding and grabbing which seems to be a tactic a lot of international fighters adopt in an attempt at a throw and follow-up for 3 points. Both of us were kept very busy on our respective tatamis throughout the day involved in eliminations, pool and bronze finals.
The main finals were to be held on a single tatami at 7pm with six kumite and four kata medals to be decided. I was to be kansa for the one kumite final and judge in the male individual kata final - Japan v Japan. One of the highlights of all the finals though was male teams with Japan v Spain. The Japanese teams Annan kata and bunkai, who secured the gold, was world class and fantastic to see up close.
Day 3
The same early start to the day, but only four kumite categories to be decided so this was going to be a much earlier finish than Saturday.
Again both of us were involved in lots of the matches, allowing us the opportunity to play a very active role in the event. Nigel judged in a bronze final and I was again selected to judge for one of the main finals.Overall a very success trip for us in representing the EKF referee department.
Brian Noble