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The 15th Kobe Osaka International World Cup and Training Camp in Halkida is finally over and attracted a total of 30 countries and 573 entries. As in previous years we have to say it was another very well organised event but that was expected. Andreas Papadimitropoulos the KOI Greece President and his staff at the Federation office have a lot of experience. The Training Camp and the World Cup were held at the Kanithos Stadium as in 2003 and the referees course and the KOI Congress were held at the HQ Hotel in Eretria. Unfortunately there were visa problems and more than 100 people were unable to participate this year. Richard Lim and his team from the Philippines received their visas too late to travel and Mohammad Ali Mardani from Iran who wanted to bring 100 persons (as he did in Moscow last year) was unsuccessful in his application and neither he nor his group were able to take part. From the whole Iranian group only one person, Saeid Ashtian was able to get a visa and he took the Gold in the men's plus 80kg division. Let's hope that next year will be different.

Official Dinner

Kobe Osaka Greece hosted an official dinner for 60 persons at a beautiful location by the sea. WKF General Secretary Dr. George Yerolimpos accompanied by his wife Emanuella attended as the guests of honour.

Andreas Papadimitropoulos and Dr. George Yerolimpos present Tommy Morris with a souvenir

KOI 14 Instructors back row, left to right, Robert Hamara, Gina Ragazzo, Steven Morris,
Tommy Morris, Kamil Mousin, Jaap Smaal, Loh Beng Hooi.
Front Row, Marco Mazzanti, Alister MacAlister, Richard Callaghan, Raphael Aktchourine

The Training Camp
There was a big turnout for the Training Camp and the instructors did a great job over the three days. As usual the kumite section under Richard Callaghan, Marco Mazzanti, Alister MacAlister and Raphael Aktchourine was the biggest. Steven Morris, Richard Ng, Sanny Yap and Con Kassis ran the Shitoryu classes and Jaap Smaal, Loh Beng Hooi, Gina Ragazzo and Robert Hamara the Shotokan classes. The instructors classes were run by Tommy Morris with senior instructors Steven Morris, Richard Callaghan, Marco Mazzanti and Jaap Smaal assisting.

The Referee Course
The Referee Course was conducted at the HQ hotel and more that 55 referees, judges and new candidates attended. John Kanellis brought his competitors for the practical assessment and the final exam took place at the championships by the senior WKF Referees.

The Congress
Tommy Morris welcomed the delegates and gave a short report. He then gave information on the KO Regional Events. The first of these will be the Kobe Osaka Italian Open (formerly Latina Games) in Latina 8/9/10 December. Following this will be the KOI Norwegian Open in January, the Kobe Osaka Russia Open in Moscow 30/31 March and 1 April, the Kobe Osaka UK in Scotland 13/16 April. Kobe Osaka Asia Open may be in Malaysia or Singapore around February/March.

Following this Metyout Zitouni gave a presentation on Morocco's bid for next year's KOI 16 followed by Morad Assem presenting Ahly Club's bid for Egypt. A bid from Philippines is still on the table from last year. The winning bid will be announced at the end of September or early October. Italy has bid for 2008 and Taiwan for 2009.

Gina Ragazzo and Robert Hamara were both promoted to 6th Dan and Marco Mazzanti and Alister MacAlister were both promoted to 5th Dan.

Alister MacAlister receives his 5th Dan Certificate and Robert Hamara receives his 6th Dan Certificate

Nguyan Hoang Ngan from Vietnam

15th KOI World Cup
The stadium was laid out according to WKF World Championships specifications with four competition areas in line. Security kept the surrounding areas clear and competitors were restricted to one side of the competition areas which resulted in a very clean and uncluttered look. To no one's surprise the large Russian contingent once again topped the medals table. The dedication and amount of work that these young kids put into their karate is an inspiration to all, they just get better and better every year.

Unfortunately for various reasons a number of countries who participated in Moscow last year could not participate this year, but we were happy to welcome new participants and competitors from Bulgaria, Canada, Hungary, Morocco, South Africa, (all of whom took medals), Romania and Senegal. Ahly club from Egypt did not participate this year but the Cairo Shooting Club and the Al Zahour Club competitors upheld Egypt's long history of wins at KOI placing them 5th in the medals table. Congratulations to Alexey Petrov, President of the Bulgarian Karate Federation whose team at their very first KOI World Cup took fourth place in the medals table and to Metyout Zitouni whose team from Morocco, also at their first KOI, placed eighth overall.

To view and download the results click here

To view and download the categories click here

To view and download the medals table click here

To view more photographs of KOI 15 click here

KOI 15 Referees and Judges

Officials
Again a special vote of thanks to Fabio Meini, Violetta Berna, Paola Proia and Roberto Boldrini from Italy who gave us so much help in organising the table officials and thanks to our senior WKF international referees, Con Kassis (WKF RC Member) from Australia, Loh Beng Hooi from Sabah (WKF RC Assistant Secretary), Jaap Smaal from Netherlands, Klaus Sterba from Germany, Pham Quoc Trong from Vietnam and Robert Hamara from Norway. We were especially pleased to welcome Koichi Yamamura (WKF RC Member) from Japan who arrived on Saturday.

Koichi Yamamura WKF RC, Pham Quoc Trong, Loh Beng Hooi
WKF RC Assistant Secretary and Con Kassis WKF RC

Thanks also to Steven Morris and Alister MacAlister from Scotland, Vlado Derek from Croatia, Geri Hofs from Netherlands, Richard Ng, Sanny Yap Ah Huat and Chris Lee Wing Kong from Singapore, and all our referees and judges who helped us have another great and safe competition. Not a single competitor needed hospital treatment and again all injuries were slight. This is an enviable record, not one serious injury in fifteen years which just goes to prove the value of the training camp and the skills of our referees, instructors, coaches and competitors.

Team Leaders
A big thank you to all the team leaders and heads of delegation for their continued support and all the effort they made to bring their competitors to Halkida. This year the biggest overseas group came from Ruissia organised and led by Kamil Mousini and closely followed by Egypt, Italy and Bulgaria. KOI main groups and their representatives who took part were:

Australia; Richard Callaghan, Marco Mazzanti
Bulgaria: Blagovest Panaev
Canada; Peter Stoddart
Croatia; Vlado Derek
Egypt; Khaled Mohamed Abdelaziz
England; Archie Grassom
Germany; Thomas Geiger and Klaus Sterba
Greece; Andreas Papadimitropoulos and Costas Papanastasiou
Hungary; Laszlo Zallel
Iceland; Vicente Carasco
India; Neil Moses and Paul Vickraman
Iran
Italy; Gina Ragazzo and Fabio Meini
Jordan; Mouin Faouri
Kazakhstan; Vitaliy Shevchenko and Orynbay Maikeyev
Kuwait; Hatem El Din Fathy
Latvia; Druvis Kalninsh and Andris Vasiljevs
Malaysia and Sabah; Loh Beng Hooi
Morocco; Metyout Zitouni
Netherlands; Jaap Smaal
Norway; Robert Hamara
Romania; Balasoiu Cezar
Russia; Kamil Musin and Rafael Aktchourine
Scotland; Steven Morris and Alister MacAlister
Senegal; Mamoune Ngom
Singapore; Richard Ng, Chris Lee Wing Kong and Sanny Yap
South Africa; Mymona Toffa
Taiwan; Dr. Laura Huang
USA; Jason Stanley
Vietnam; Pham Quoc Trong

14th KOI Report
If you want to read about the 14th KOI in Moscow in 2005 click here

13th KOI Report
If you want to read about the 13th KOI in Manila Philippines in 2004 click here

12th KOI Report
If you want to read about the 12th KOI in Halkida Greece in 2003 click here