The World Karate Federation has announced that Spain will host the 24th WKF World Senior Championships. Karate’s top event will take place in Madrid from November 6 to 11, 2018 and it will be the most important tournament of the sport ahead of Karate’s debut in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. 

The World Karate Federation has announced that Spain will host the 24th WKF World Senior Championships. Karate’s top event will take place in Madrid from November 6 to 11, 2018 and it will be the most important tournament of the sport ahead of Karate’s debut in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. 

The decision to name Madrid as the host city for the event was ratified during the WKF Extraordinary Congress in Tenerife (Spain) last week. The 24th WKF World Championships are set to follow the successful previous editions of Karate’s global leading competition which were held in Linz (Austria) in 2016, Bremen (Germany) in 2014, Paris (France) in 2012 and Belgrade (Serbia) in 2010. 

The 2018 edition of Karate’s first-class tournament will be staged at the WiZink Center sports hall in Madrid. Located in the centre of the city, the WiZink Center sports hall has a capacity of 12.000 spectators and it has been the venue of major sports and cultural events in the capital of Spain. 

The tournament is scheduled to take place from November 6 to 11, 2018, thus expanding one day of action of the competition that gathers Karate’s best athletes. The Karate World Championships traditionally stretched for five days, but due to the highly increased number of participants, the action will start on Tuesday. The finals and bronze medal bouts in all the categories are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The title-deciding bouts will be available to a worldwide viewing audience through TV networks and online platforms around the world. 

The 24th Karate World Championships is billed as the main stop in the race to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The event, which is held every two years, allocates the highest number of points in WKF World Ranking. This classification of athletes according to their performance in major Karate events will be one of the main criteria in the qualification for Tokyo 2020. 

Following the remarkable increase in the number of competitors registered in previous editions, the event to be held in Madrid is expected to break all participation records. Over 1000 karatekas from 110 countries competed at the 2016 World Championships in Linz. With Karate approaching to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020, this tally is set to be exceeded in Madrid. 

Spain had previously hosted the Karate World Championships on three occasions, with Madrid being the venue in 2002 and 1980, and Granada receiving the event in 1992. 

(Picture: 2012 World Championships in Paris, France)