Meeting in Turkey with Prof. Dr. Ugur Erdener

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Published on Tuesday, 03 June 2014 15:22

Mr. Salim KAYICI, President of Turkish Kickboxing Federation who is a Board Member of WAKO (IF) and Vice President of WAKO Europe arranged a meeting with Espen LUND, Acting President of WAKO (IF) and Prof. Dr. Uğur ERDENER, who is President of Turkish National Olympic Committee. The meeting took place in Ankara, Turkey on 28th of May 2014. Uğur ERDENER is a Turkish physician specialized in ophthalmology and professor at the Hacettepe University, Ankara. He is the former president of Turkish Archery Federation, he is the actual president of World Archery Federation and he is currently a member of the International Olympic Committee. Uğur ERDENER is a Member of the Women and Sport since Commission; was a member of the Medical Commission between 2009-2014 and since 2014 he has been Chairman of the Medical Commission.



This meeting was very important for WAKO since we had the unique possibility to present our sport both on Turkish national level and at international level. We had good discussions about our sport and of martial art in general. Mr. Erdener showed interest in our sport and also explained about the sport situation in Turkey in general. 
During the meeting Mr. Salim KAYICI gave kickboxing gloves to Mr. Uğur ERDENER as a gift.

Szeged 2014 report

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Published on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 21:51

Interview with  Mr. Ferenc Nèmet, Hungarian kickboxing federation board member  and main organizer of World cup in Szeged

Satisfied with results and competition

  These week end was reserved for Hungarian open tournament World Cup, where were gathered best fighters from Europe. We had three days of very good competition. 25 countries participated, 1100 fighters came these days in Szeged not to enjoy only in competition but also in this charming town.

Main impressions about the competition are:

    “We didn`t have much problems in organization, everything is going well. There are 120 fights in the rings daily. We  didn`t have one fight with complains for the result so we can see that judging is going fine. The fighters gave to public clean, good fights.

   We have  here the  best ring and tatami fighters, former World and European champions. They are testing their readyness for the upcoming World and European Championships.  Hungary brought here very good fighters and we expect from them a lot.

   We see in K1, hegemony of Belarus is still going on, they are here with very strong fighters. Very good Serbian fighters are here also.

   Unfortunately, concerning tatami sports, we don`t have Italian and Ireland team here.

   As for our fighters, this competition is for sure very good opportunity to select among them the best for upcoming Championships in Spain and Slovenia.

   We are very well supported from our government and Ministry of sports.

Mr. Richar Leyrer, Mr. Borislav Pelevic, Mr. Istvan Kiraly, Mr. Tamas Deutsch and Mr. Ferenc Nemet.

   Here  we have special guest, Mr. Tamás Deutsch a Hungarian politician and member of the European Parliament. He was member of the Hungarian Parliament between 1990 and 2009 and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports between 1999 and 2002.

   I have to stress that in our country, from a year ago, there are everyday sport activities for kids in elementary schools. I find it of great importance when  we discuss sport. “

Here is the link for the results:

http://kickbox.hu/_Eredmenyek/2014_Kick-box-VK_Szeged/2014-Szeged-K1.pdf

Complete image gallery is on this link

Yōkoso Dutch Open 2014

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Published on Saturday, 17 May 2014 09:48

On the 10th of May the Yōkoso Dutch Open 2014 took place in the Emergohal, Amstelveen. Over 720 entries from 18 countries took part in what is known as the friendly tournament. With some of the best organisation seen at any tournament using state of the art technology courtesy of Sportdata, entrants knew to the minute, the expected time for their fight to start. Scores and results went out online in real time so family and friends could stay up to date with how the competition from the comfort of their own home. Sportdata registered 1.900 unique visitors that were following the event on Liveblog. All together they had over 400.000 clicks, which means actual clicks or website renewals with a new scoring results. This numbers were obtained without most people even knowing that this was possible and without promoting this. Furthermore it was possible to capture 4 tatamis on video with the scores embedded in the video shoot. Hopefully this system will be adapted in more tournaments soon.

The tournament covered four aspects of kickboxing, point fighting, light continuous, traditional forms and musical forms and some of the best competitors from Europe were there to try to get on the podium. Ten tatamis were in use, two more than last year which, in conjunction with the computer system and the all of the WAKO referees present saw the event finish before 20:00. 

The day started off with light continuous, where the judges made use of electronic tablets to keep score and had names on the podium like Elijah Everill, Petar Zhivkov, Dale Bannister and Paulina Jarzmik, all well known names from WAKO World and European tournaments. The point fighting divisions made up the larger portion of entrants and again there was no shortage of well known fighters. In the juniors Joyce Poppe of Belgium and Elijah Everill from the UK took gold in two divisions each while in the seniors, Shannon Ryan, Evelyn Neyens, Tilen Zajc and Anatoli Kuschnir all managed to win double gold.

The highlight of the day, the adult grand champions divisions were last to take place  and saw Evelyn Neyens, Gemma Upfold, Maria Semenova and Monica Engeset make it to the semi finals of the ladies division. After two tough bouts, Semenova of Russia, and Engeset of Norway made it into the final where the Russians height and reach advantage proved too much for Monica, and Maria was crowned grand champion.

Tilen Zajc, already having won two divisions, along with Timmy Sarantoudis, Sean McCarthy and Carvin Burke were all in the semi finals of the mens division. Sean McCarthy, last years grand champion went into the final to face Zajc but was unable to defend his title successfully as the Slovenian was on top form all day and determined to take the title and the prize money.

This was the last year that the Yokoso Dutch Open will be a one day event as next year on the 11th and 12th of April, there will be most likely new divisions added to the event to include the ring sports, K-1.

View the highlights from the competition at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzXN6_K1uDo and for a full list of results go to  
www.yokosodutchopen.com

We would like to once again thank all the referees, staff, crew, coaches and fighters that came to the Yōkoso Dutch Open to make this event a big success.

Danny Slevin (Brannmanndan) was there to capture everything on tape and special thanks to him for his amazing work.

Many thanks, hugs and kisses from Yokoso Dutch Open team.

The Friendly Tournament

WAKO IF Board meeting

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Published on Sunday, 27 April 2014 11:54

WAKO IF board meeting was held in Vienna, 22th and 23th April 2014.

Photo 1. Members of the meeting

On the first meeting day budget WAKO IF 2014 was accepted. On the proposal of the WAKO Europe President Mr. Borislav Pelevic, WAKO Europe budget was increased for this year, knowing that WAKO Europe has to organize two European Championships; the first in Slovenia (4 tatami disciplines),the second in Spain (3 ring disciplines). The budget for WAKO Asia and WAKO Panamerica has also increased.

The second day was reserved for reviewing draft of the Statute WAKO IF , produced by the Legal committee. Mr. Borislav Pelevic, WAKO Europe President was displeased with the fact that the working on the draft Statute has lasted seven months and members of this meeting had the opportunity to look at the draft for the first time on this meeting , so there was no time for preparations and discussions. On his proposal, voted by majority, a new Working group was formed.The members of this Working group which will continue working on the draft Statute WAKO IF, are:

-          Mr. Espen Lund, WAKO IF Acting President

-          Four Presidents ( or representatives) of four Continental divisions

-          WAKO lawyer Mrs. Franceska Falsoni

-          independent Swiss lawyer.

The deadline for giving the proposal of the WAKO IF Statute to the Board of Directors WAKO IF is 23th May, and the Board meeting when it will be given for acknowledgement is on 7^th June in Lignano Sabiadoro, Italy, during the World Cup “Best fighter”.

During the World Cup “Best Fighter”in Lignano Sabiadoro, Italy, 6^th of June, a meeting of WAKO Europe Board of Directors will be held.

At the meeting in Vienna, acting President WAKO IF Mr. Espen Lund had the opportunity to introduce all about WAKO becoming a member of IWGA and will take part on the next World Games in Wroclow, Polland 2017. He introduced a report about many meetings he has had with representatives of Sportaccord and IOC, for the purpose of acknowledgement of WAKO kickboxing by International Olympic Committee.

Photo 2. On the meeting in Vienna