On October 6 was held the Kata Grand Slam in Olbia, Italy and this first day of competition was full of an ancient atmosphere as Nage-no-kata, katame-no-kata and Juno-kata were at the programme of the morning, when the afternoon was dedicated to the Koshiki-no-kata and the Kime-no-kata.

The pairs of athletes performed under the scrutiny of the IJF experts under the supervision of the IJF judo/kata committee chaired by IJF 10th Dan, Mr Franco Capelletti.

The medals were awarded by Haruki Uemura, Kodokan President ; Franco Capelletti, Chairman of the IJF kata commission ; Envic Galea (Malta), IJF Academy Director ; Omar DangaLoum (Senegal), Member of the IJF Veteran commission ; Jane Brige (GB), European Commission ; Kuniko Takeuchi (USA), Panamerica Commission ; Koji Komata (Japan), Asian Commission ; Bill Vincent (New Zealand), Oceania Commission ; Thomas Dunker (South Africa), African Commission ; El Djamali El Jarabi (Morocco), Department of Education Africa.

For the second day of competition, on October 7, on the occasion of the Kata World Championships, the IJF President, Mr. Marius Vizer is awaited.


It must be underlined that during that first day of competition, remarkable performances were produced by all participants and significant progresses from the technical point of view were observed throughout the day.

All continents are concerned by this significant improvement and it shows the excellent work that has been accomplished by the kata commission over the past years.

Many participants coming from several countries showed their hard work and demonstrated a high technical level. Among the best nations were Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Turkey or Algeria, as the Pan American and African continents also showed that they have moved a big step forward.

Of course, Japanese athletes once again demonstrated their amazing capacity to produce top level katas but it must be said, that Japan is not alone any more and many countries have entered the best nations in the world in kata.

In the future, judo techniques and specifically kata techniques, will be increasingly offered to young people in particular during the judo festival that will take place in 2018.

RESULTS OF THE DAY

See also