4th WKC European Championships 4 - 6 June 2004 in Caorle (Venice) / Italy

The 4th WKC European Championships was held in the city of Caorle, Italy, between 4th - 6th June 2004. The hosting federation was the Federazione Educativa Sportiva Italiana Karate (FESIK) that already organised the 1st WKC World Championships in 1997 in Arezzo. The city of Caorle is about 50 km from Venice international airport. Caorle is a famous resort with lovely beaches on the Adriatic Sea. The city and region were giving full support to this European event.

Prof. George POPPER, GCKM (HUN) - President of IBSSA was invited by Dr. Fritz WENDLAND (GER) - President of WKC as honorary guest of the championships. WKC (World Karate Confederation) is a dynamically developing international karate federation; its European or World Championships are not anymore behind the championships of the other international federation, the WKF. Moreover, because WKC preserved the let say traditional regulations of karate, its events are more and more popular!

The European Championships was a great success; good fights with high level and professional organisation and with a great many of participants. Our congratulations for the great results and success to WKC President - Dr. Fritz WENDLAND, who is Honorary Founding Member of IBSSA, and also to Mr. Carlo HENKE; and our compliments to Prof. Giacomo Spartaco BERTOLETTI and Dr. Daniele LAZZARINI - Honorary Members of IBSSA - for the professional organisation of this event, who organise 2 - 3 international events in Caorle (Topolino Karate Trophy, etc.) since the 6th Congress of IBSSA in March 2000 in Caorle / Italy.

During the WKC European Championships there were several meetings and discussions among the following IBSSA officials:

• Prof. George POPPER, GCKM (HUN) - President of IBSSA, and Honorary Guest of the event
• Dr. Rony KLUGER (ISR) - General Secretary
• Dr. Marko NICOVIC (YUG) - 1st Vice President
• Dr. Fritz WENDLAND (GER) - Honorary Founding Member
• Prof. Giacomo S. BERTOLETTI (ITA) - Honorary Member of IBSSA
• Dr. Alex HEVESI (AUT) - Country Representative of IBSSA for Austria

Subjects

• Prof. George POPPER informed the present officials about the Gambian and Iraqi matters
• The President of IBSSA also reported briefly about the discussions in Zlin with Dr. Alexandr CACH - Country Representative of IBSSA for Czech Republic and future plans of IBSSA CZ
• The IBSSA leaders confirmed the speeding up of organising the IBSSA ISF (International Sport Federation) and Martial Arts Alliance
• Prof. Giacomo S. BERTOLETTI undertook the leadership of the Martial Arts Alliance as this association was his idea and he reported that already numerous other sport federations have joined the alliance

World Martial Arts Festival

Dr. Eriks GRINBERGS signified that the IBSSA Latvian Team intends to organise the Festival again in Riga. The IBSSA leadership accepted and supported this proposal and appointed Dr. Rony KLUGER as responsible person of he Festival, who helps the Latvian Organising Committee.

Rev. Philip J. CASCIA (USA) - Honorary Member of IBSSA proposed to organise the IBSSA Congress or other event in the USA. The IBSSA Board of Directors agreed that and OPEN Board Meeting will take place in October 2004 in Florida in order to discuss the proposal that IBSSA ISF could organise a big Martial Arts Festival in the USA in Florida, in California, in Las Vegas, in New York or in other places in 2005 and the 11th Congress of IBSSA with its side events (Bodyguard World championships) could be held either in Las Vegas or in Florida in 2006.

Dr. Alex HEVESI informed the present leaders that manufacturing of embroidered IBSSA products - making to order - has already been started. Upon request they can put name and title of the customer.

Dr. Fritz WENDLAND gave information about the forthcoming WKC events and invited the present IBSSA officials. He also stated that these events are open and all karate federations, which have contacts with IBSSA, can join WKC as well.

4th WKC Junior World Championships and World Cup for Children between 22 - 24 October 2004

The 4th WKC Junior World Championships and World Cup for Children will be held in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, from 22nd to 24th October 2004. The hosting federation is the Deutscher JKA-Karate Bund DJKB that already organised the 2nd WKC World Championships in 1999 in Bochum. The city of Darmstadt is about 30 km from Frankfurt international airport. Darmstadt was once the capital of the German state of Hesse. The city of Darmstadt is giving its full support to this World event.

The address of the organiser is

Deutscher JKA-Karate Bund
Schwarzwaldstr. 64
D - 66482 Zweibrücken Germany
Tel 0049-6337-6749
Fax 0049-6337-993130
E-mail JKA_Deutschland@gmx.de

2nd WKC South-East Asian and Oceania Open Championships New Delhi, India 9 - 12 December 2004

The 2nd WKC South-East Asian and Oceania Open Championships will be held from 9th to 12th December 2004 in New Delhi, India. In 2003 we had the first tournament in Kathmandu, Nepal. We hope this year to have many more participants as the WKC has more member federations in South-East Asia and Oceania. The main organiser of the event will be the Goju-Ryu Karate-do Federation of India GKFI.

The address of the organiser is

Goju-Ryu Karate-do Federation of India
Mr. Vikram Kapoor
D - 21 (F.F.), Saket
IND - New Delhi - 110017 India
E-mail vickysan@rediffmail.com

The next WKC European Championships will be organised by Dr. Marko NICOVIC - President of the Yugoslav Karate Confederation - possibly in Novi Sad.

The next IBSSA Board Meeting will be held in Budapest / Hungary on the 25th June 2004, where the present IBSSA leaders will discuss and approve all the above proposals and plans.

20th June 2004, Budapest
IBSSA HQ