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The First IFK World Kata Tournament was held in Switzerland in 1999. Four years on from that event
and Sensei Callan was determined to have the IKK represented on this international stage. The tournament is made up of three categories – Mens individual, womens individual and Team. Senseis
Ken and
Shane were selected to represent Ireland in the mens individuals and despite a short training period due to work commitments both trained away under the watchful eye of Sensei
Kevin and
Stephen.
Sensei Kevins work commitments precluded him from travelling and so
Sensei Steve travelled as coach.
The Irish team flew out on Thursday 23rd of October and met up with Hanshi Steve Arneil 9th Dan and the Great Britain Team in London for the flight to Krakow airport in Poland. The team stayed in a hotel in Bielsko-Biala on the Thursday night and on Friday went to visit Auschwitz concentration camp with some
BKK members from Wales. This was quite an emotional day but is a place that must be seen if you get a chance. Afterwards the team travelled to Szczyrk in the mountains to stay in the main hotel.
The draw was made on the Friday night at 10.00 and the competition was to run as follows:
Team first round, Ladies individuals first round and then mens individuals first round.
Sensei Ken was drawn at number ten and
Sensei Shane at number seventeen so the team had a while to go before they were up. The event was televised live on Polish national television.
Sensei Ken
performed Pinan Go in the first round and received a score of 20.8. Sensei Shane performed Tsuki no Kata and scored 20.4.
Kens score was enough to see him into the second round where he performed Seinchin for a score of 20.5. Sadly this was as far as the team went. Officially
Sensei Shane placed 20th out of 24 and
Sensei Ken
placed 16th. This was quite a credible performance from both as many of the other countries had been
training for over a year for this tournament. Darren
Stringer of
Great Britain
won the mens while Emma Moulden also of
Great Britain
won the womens (for the second time in succession).
Russia
won the team competition. Full results are available on
the Kyokushin results website - IFK
World Championships.
All that was left now was the sayonara party which could be the source of
another article entirely. The team returned home determined to improve in
the coming years for the next World Tournament to be held in
Canada
in 2007. The team met many other karateka of all grades
from 18 countries who took part including, Great
Britain
,
Switzerland
,
Norway
,
Germany
,
Spain
,
South Africa
,
Russia
,
Estonia
,
Belarus
,
Poland
,
Belgium
and
Canada
. In all more than 80 competitors took part and the
tournament was well organised by Sensei Piotr Szelegowski (IFK country
representative for
Poland
.)
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From Left to Right: Sensei Shane
Lalor, Sensei Stephen Quaille, Sensei Ken FitzPatrick
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