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World Karate Federation News

Change in WKF Theory Examination
At the Junior and Cadet Championships in Cyprus the theory examinations will be conducted differently from before. The questions will be projected onto a screen in English, French, and Spanish, whilst another screen will show Japanese and Arabic. This will allow the questions to be changed for every examination.

Competition Rules Update
Due to the introduction of compulsory foot protection in Cyprus there has been an update to the Competition Rules and a new Appendix (No. 10). You can download these from the WKF web site or in case of difficulty you can download them here in Adobe PDF format. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open them). Download WKF Rules

Changes in the Examination Procedures
Continuing his initiative to have all WKF referee candidates receive the same fair treatment from the Referee Committee Tommy Morris proposed to President Antonio Espinos that an entirely new system of examination be adopted. The proposal was accepted and was put into practice in Monterrey Mexico at the WKF Championships last November. A presentation outlining the new system was given to the WKF Executive Committee and to the Congress where it was warmly received. The new system resulted in the highest ever passmark with a higher than 50% pass in kata and kumite.

What was proposed was that each examiner must act independently in future and will have an evaluation form on which the candidates scores are recorded. Immediately after the examination of a candidate the examiner gives the form to the Referee Commission Secretary. When all the forms have been collected the highest and lowest scores are discarded and the remaining scores are averaged to give the final score. The WKF President and RC Chair decide the actual pass-mark which is not known to the examining panel. The candidate will receive the result via a pass/fail form which in the case of failure outlines the reasons. The National Federation will be notified of the result.

In the past some candidates were upset to receive a "B" qualification when others went directly to "A" level. This has also been changed so that the qualification system is now as follows:

A "B" licence is required before an "A" licence can be attempted. Candidates must progress through each level. However those with "B" qualifications may now officiate at that level in all WKF events and a new examination can be attempted every year, it is no longer required to wait 2 years before moving from Kumite Judge A to Kumite Referee, so the progression is;
Kumite Judge B and/or Kata Judge B
Kumite Judge A and/or Kata Judge A
Kumite Referee B
Karate Referee. This is a new qualification and replaces Kumite Referee A. Karate Referees are qualified in both Kumite and Kata to "A" level. Those who currently hold Kumite Referee A will require to obtain Kata Judge A by 31 December 2008.

The new system has been warmly received with a number of National Federations requesting further details with a view to implementing the same method in their national examinations.

WKF Announces Appointment of RC Assistant Secretary

WKF President Antonio Espinos has announced the appointment of Mr. Loh Beng Hooi as Assistant Secretary to the Referee Commission. In the last few years there has been a considerable increase in the number of candidates and in the number of WKF referees and judges attending World Championships. This together with new procedures put in place by the President to ensure fairness and partiality in the examination process has meant a considerable increase in the RC Secretary's workload. Mr. Loh has been a supplementary member of the RC and will commence his new duties in Mexico.

President Antonio Espinos with Loh Beng Hooi at the 39th European Championships

EKF Referee Committee Elections

The new EKF RC from left to right: Javier Escalante,
Pepe Perez, Terry Pottage, Tommy Morris, Cetin Demirel,
Tommaso Mini, Klaus Sterba and Vladi Vardiero

The 39th European Karate Federation Congress unanimously agreed to adopt the decision of the Executive Committee that the members of the Referee Commission should be elected by the referees and judges themselves rather than being appointed by the Executive as in the past. The Chair of the Referee Commission and the Secretary will still be appointed by the Executive Committee.

The elections were held on Sunday 9th May at the referee briefing immediately after the Championships end. There were six places to be filled and eleven candidates put their names forward for election. The three who received the most votes would be elected for four years and the other three would be elected for two years so that the whole committee would not be retiring at the same time. Those countries that had one to three referees or judges present were entitled to cast one vote for each of the six candidates. Those that had four to eight present had two votes and those with nine or more present could have the maximum of three votes. The ballot was overseen by Mr. Gunnar Nordahl, EKF 1st Vice President and the RC Secretary Mr. Javier Escalante. The voting was as follows:

3rd World Junior and Cadet Championships

The 3rd World Junior and Cadet Championships took place in Marseilles France during 24/25/26 October and was attended by 832 athletes from 73 affiliated countries. The new rules are having their effect and the competition was extremely exciting and spectacular. Proper interpretation and application of the rules by the referees concerning contact at the Senior World Championships in Madrid last year resulted in a drop in injuries of 50% as reported by the WKF Medical Committee.

The examinations for Kata Judges and Kumite Referees and Judges were well attended with 42 persons attempting kata qualifications and 124 attempting kumite qualifications or upgrading.

Go to the WKF web page at www.wkf.net for a full report.

Referee's FAQs

This section has been updated with new information and is included in our KOI Members section. Just sign on to get access.

Latest Competition Amendments

The WKF Directing Committee approved the latest amendments to the Competition Rules in Madrid in November. They have been translated from English into French and Spanish and have been sent to all National Federations on Friday 24th January. They are effective as of now. The latest version is 5.3a.

Go to our WKF Rules page if you want to download a copy.

WKF Theory Examinations

The new question papers have been translated from English into French and Spanish and are available on the WKF web site. You can download the English language papers from our New Questions page in the member's area.

EKF Takes the Lead

Karate competition requires exceptional referees and the movement towards more and more professionalism in sport karate makes the job even more difficult and extremely stressful. Charges of bias against officials even when they are completely unfounded only adds to the strain of officiating and after the World Championships in Madrid, Tommy Morris proposed changes to Antonio Espinos the EKF/WKF President. Since these proposals required no change in the existing competition rules the European Karate Federation implemented them at the Junior and Cadet Championships in February in Wroclaw, Poland.

The WKF Directing Committee has also considered and approved these procedural changes and they will be in use in Marseilles at the World Junior and Cadet Championships in October.

Here are the changes.

Referee Selection

In future the selection of the referees and judges who officiate in the finals and repechage will be chosen by the Tatami Chiefs (Match Area Controllers) as follows.

1. Each competition area is supervised by two Match Area Controllers (Tatami Chiefs) who observe and monitor the performance of the officials under their control.
2. A Selection Committee consisting of one MAC from each Tatami will be responsible for the choice of officials for the finals and repechage.
3. As far as possible the Members of the Selection Committee will all be from different Continental Unions. (In the case of the European Karate Federation from different countries.)
4. When a team or individual competitor has the same nationality as a member of the Selection Committee then that member will automatically be excluded from the process.
5. The actual choice of officials for the finals will be made by three to five MACs depending on paragraph 4 above.
6. When the choice of Referee Panel had been made it will be recorded on the official form and signed by the Selection Committee.
7. Once made only the Selection Panel that made the choice has the authority to change the composition of the Referee Panel chosen.

Team Kumite Changes

In order to relieve stress, ensure fair play and competent and unbiased officiating the following method is to be adopted for all Kumite Team Finals and Repechage (for the 3rd places) matches.
1. Only qualified referees will be used, not judges.
2. The centre referee will change after each bout.
3. At the end of each bout all the members of the referee panel will move in a clockwise direction to their next position (without an exchange of bows).
4. Each official including the arbitrator (Kansa) will act as centre referee once, excepting female matches and those matches that are decided according to Article 7 paragraph 6 of the Competition Rules.
5. In the case of a draw (Hikiwake) between male teams and a deciding bout be necessary then the first referee will take the centre position once more.

New Rules Video with Latest Amendments

VMA International has released a video by Tommy Morris featuring the new Competition Rules as adopted in Munich in 2000 and and now including the latest amendments as approved for 2003. It is available now. The video is priced at £25.00 GBP plus postage and is available from:

VMA International
White House Studios
40 New Street
Wigton
Cumbria CA7 9AL
England

E-mail: info@vma-international.com

The video is endorsed by the WKF and is recommended for all refereeing officials as well as coaches and competitors.

National Referees May Go Direct to WKF Exams

When the first WUKO World Championships and refereeing examinations were held in 1970, nationally qualified referees were eligible to take the examinations and this situation continued right up until quite recently although the European Karate Federation (formerly EKU) was an exception in that its members had to be qualified Continental Union referees before being allowed to participate at World level. However there were so many people attempting the examinations often without effective and proper preparation that the WKF DC decided that all candidates to the WKF examinations must be Continental Union qualified referees so that, in theory at least, only the best would actually attempt the WKF examinations. Unfortunately the time needed to qualify first as a National Referee, then as a Continental Referee, then as a WKF Judge, and then as a WKF Referee, was so long that some candidates were well past their best by the time they finally arrived at the WKF examinations. This long process together with the added complication and expense of air travel within Continental Unions to attend the examinations was prohibitive for many and so some prospective candidates could never get to the WKF at all. WKF DC decided to remedy this and in a directive issued on 23 July 2001 all Nationally qualified Kumite Referees and Kata Judges supported by their National Federations may once more attend the WKF courses and examinations. Visit the WKF web site for more information.