The season of Karate 1-Premier League starts in Paris (France) from January 24 to 26. The best karatekas in the world meet in the highly anticipated opening event of the most important series of Karate competitions. 

The season of Karate 1-Premier League starts in Paris (France) from January 24 to 26. The best karatekas meet in the highly anticipated opening event of the most important series of Karate competitions in the world.  

With the debut of Karate in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 coming closer and closer, we review five key factors at play ahead of the Karate 1-Premier League Paris.

1. Olympic qualification process. There are only six events left where athletes can achieve points to earn the qualification to the Olympic Games by ranking. The Karate 1-Premier League Paris will be essential in the race to the Olympics with a host of top karatekas hoping to confirm their ticket to the Games by ranking at the event.

2. Grand Winners Award. The new Grand Winners will be honoured in Paris. The “Best of the Best” of last year’s edition of the Karate 1-Premier League will receive the trophies at a special ceremony scheduled for Saturday, January 25 from 19:30 (local time). The 12 new Grand Winners are the only karateka allowed to wear during the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League the special Karategi with the golden embroidery. CLICK HERE to review the list of new Grand Winners.

3. New regulations. The event in Paris will see minor updates of the competition being implemented. The most eye-catching of these modifications affects karategis. Starting at the event in Paris, competitors participating in all Karate 1-Premier League events must wear karatekis with the brands embroidered on the shoulder on blue and red, whether they perform as "Aka" or "Ao". This regulation aims at improving the visual recognition of athletes and making kumite and kata bouts more appealing to spectators.

4. Athletes on great form. The Karate 1-Premier League Paris will put the spotlight on several karatekas who are performing at an outstanding level. Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu of Turkey won four of the seven Karate 1-Premier League events last year and, and this season the current Grand Winner started the year with an impressive triumph in Karate 1-Series A Santiago.

Also gold medal winner in Santiago, Anzhelika Terliuga of Ukraine will try to improve the five Karate 1-Premier League titles which the current Grand Winner won last year. Although ending on the second spot of the podium in Santiago, Ugur Aktas of Turkey has started the season showing the same great level as he did in 2019 when he retained the Grand Winner award after claiming three gold medals.

Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran also celebrated his newly-acquired status of Grand Winner with a victory in Santiago. The World Championships runner-up from Iran took three Karate 1-Premier League crowns last year.

Although he was absent from the last two major events, Ryo Kiyuna aims at increasing his outstanding gold medal tally at Karate 1-Premier League. The current Grand Winner and World Champion in Male Kata took no less than six gold medals in Karate 1-Premier League last year.

5. Eyes set on the Olympic Qualification Tournament. While the Karate 1-Premier League Paris reaches its ninth anniversary this year, with the capital of France being the only city hosting Karate 1-Premier League events in all the nine editions of the tournament, the relevance of this event is even greater as this competition will be the last major Karate event in France before the anticipated and historic Olympic Qualification Tournament. Paris will host the tournament where the last Olympic tickets will be allocated from May 8 to 10.

CLICK HERE to go to the micro-site of the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League Paris.