Representatives of 19 countries gathered Wednesday for the second day of virtual meetings of the WKF with national federations

Representatives of 19 countries gathered Wednesday for the second day of virtual meetings of the WKF with national federations. Two sessions via videoconference were held Wednesday as Karate braces to return to normal.

The first meeting gathered delegates from African, Pan American, and Asian countries as representatives of Botswana, Canada, Chad, Japan, Kuwait, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, USA, and Zimbabwe attended the meeting. WKF General Secretary Toshihisa Nagura also participated in the event.

Spanish-speaking countries from Pan America joined the second session of meetings. Delegates of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay took part in the gathering with WKF Executive Committee members Jose Garcia Maañon and Jose Antonio Mendez, and WKF Referee Commission chairman Javier Escalante also participating in the conversations.

Representatives of national federations attending the first session of meetings 

“We are very hopeful that the 2021 season will bring many successes to the Karate world. But in order to achieve these accomplishments, we must stay active. We must continue doing activities and we must keep on making sure that karatekas around the world find opportunities to continue practising our sport,” said WKF President Antonio Espinós.  

“Our responsibility is to deal with the current situation and to do our utmost to provide ways to combine the limitations of the pandemic with the development of our activities. Over the course of the last months, we have learned that we are more than capable to go ahead and move forward despite all the circumstances,” added Mr Espinós.  

The national federations attending the meeting stressed the importance of virtual activities such as online e-learning initiatives like the WKF Accredited Coaches online programme to maintain the progress of the sport. As the coronavirus pandemic continues spreading in most countries around the world, and as international competitions are thus far impossible to be celebrated due to the epidemic restrictions, the representatives of karate organisation stated their endeavours to host tournaments at the national level. Always following the appropriate measures to guarantee the wellbeing of competitors and staff members, successful events were highlighted as examples of the re-establishment of Karate activities worldwide.

Representatives of Pan American national federations gathered for the second session of meetings