Nearly 300 Karate referees from 98 countries gathered at a meeting videoconference with WKF President Antonio Espinós to discuss the overhaul of WKF’s judging body.

Nearly 300 Karate referees from 98 countries gathered at a meeting videoconference with WKF President Antonio Espinós to discuss the overhaul of WKF’s judging body.

Headed by WKF President Antonio Espinós and organised by WKF Referee Commission chairman Javier Escalante, the conference aimed at informing WKF officials of the restructuring of the referee organisation as well as discussing the upcoming development plans for the WKF judging team. 

The reorganisation of the WKF Referee Commission and the new coach education programme were on top of the agenda. The prospective competition schedule for 2020 and 2021, the Para-karate rules and Kata examination, and updates of the referee micro-site on WKF official website were also discussed.

WKF President Antonio Espinós took time to analyse the project of Karate’s international organisation to further improve the referee body, including a new ranking of referees currently under study.

“In order to ensure that athletes can show their best on the tatami, we also need to make sure that referees and officials find their best conditions to officiate at their best possible level. While we are very pleased to see the outstanding level of refereeing at our events, we need to offer referees the tools to continue improving. In this way, we will guarantee that the best referees judge our top competitions, and also that our values of fairness, integrity and honour continue being safeguarded,” said WKF President Antonio Espinós.