The Executive Committee of the World Karate Federation (WKF) has approved updates to the qualification and competition system for the Qualification Tournament and the Final Phase of the Karate World Championships 2025. The decision, made during the committee’s ordinary meeting on Tuesday via videoconference, aims to enhance clarity and fairness while maximizing athletes’ opportunities to qualify for the sport’s most prestigious event.

The updated competition framework introduces several important changes. Regarding the Qualification Tournament to the Karate World Championships, a Refugee Team will be featured at the event, and this squad will be treated as a single National Federation. Following this concept, only one refugee athlete per category may participate, with selection based on ranking or sporting achievements if no ranking is available.

For full details on the Qualification Tournament of the Karate World Championships 2025, please refer to the official document at the following Link.

As for the Final Phase of the Karate World Championships, quotas will now be assigned based on each specific allocation criterion separately, ensuring a fairer and more structured qualification process. Moreover, only athletes featured in the Karate World Championships standings or those who compete in the Qualification Tournament will be eligible for the Universality Places at the event. In this sense, Refugee athletes may qualify if they meet one of these two conditions.

In terms of the draw process, the top four ranked athletes will be seeded into different groups, with the remaining competitors drawn randomly. Continental coincidences in groups will be avoided whenever possible.

Moving into the competition system, the two top athletes in each pool of the group phase will advance to the elimination rounds, thus providing more opportunities for competitors to reach the final stages of the event. In this way, the top two athletes from each group will qualify for the Elimination Phase, which consists of four rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Medal Bouts.

For more details on the Final Phase of the Karate World Championships 2025, please refer to the official document at the following Link.

WKF President Antonio Espinós emphasized the federation’s commitment to ensuring fair competition and supporting athletes’ development:

“The well-being and progress of athletes are always at the heart of the WKF. We continue to take significant steps to guarantee fairness in our competitions even more. The decisions confirmed by the Executive Committee ensure that athletes will not only have the best conditions to showcase their skills at the World Championships but also have a clear and transparent pathway to qualify. With athletes always in mind, these updates reaffirm the WKF’s ongoing efforts to refine and strengthen the sport’s premier events.”