European Karate Federation

European Karate Federation
Abbreviation EKF
Formation 1963[1]
Legal status Federation
Headquarters Madrid
Location
Region served
 Europe
Membership
 more than 50 Affiliated Countries
Official language
 English is the official language. If any question in respect to the sport or technique of Karate, it will be referred to the original Japanese text.
President
 Antonio Espinos of Spain
Website European Karate Federation

The European Karate Federation (EKF) is the governing body of the sport, karate, in more than 50 countries across Europe. [2] The EKF's aim is to promote, organize, regulate, and popularize the karate sport. It is one of the five continental federations recognized by the World Karate Federation.[3] Since 1966, it has organized the European Karate Championships, and now it organizes Junior, Cadet, and Under-21 Championships.

History

On March 31, 1961, Jacques Delcourt was appointed President of French Karate, an associate member of the Judo Federation at that time. In 1963, he invited the additional six members of the EKF at the time (Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) to come to France for the first recognized international karate event. Only Great Britain and Belgium accepted this invitation.[4]

On December 15th, 1963, six of the seven federations gathered in Paris, in what was to be the first European Karate Congress, with the aim of improving and organizing karate tournaments between their countries. The founding of the European Karate Union (Union Européenne de Karaté) is dated from this point.[5]

The unification of the different karate styles was difficult for the separate federations to agree upon and so the delegates decided to unify the refereeing.[6][7][8][9]

On May 24th, 1964, a governance structure was established at the Second European Karate Congress. Jacques Delcourt was elected the first president; a position he held until 1988. At the Third Congress, on November 21st, 1965, the delegates, now representing ten countries, adopted a constitutional structure and rules for the creation of standards for instruction and rankings. They also scheduled the first European Karate Championships to be held in Paris on May, 1966.[10][11][12]

The event drew approximately 300 spectators and was broadcast live on TV. The event drew criticism for being too violent due to multiple resulting facial injuries. The EKU council had different opinions about the causes of the injuries, ranging from excessive rule violations to both skills and conditioning. This problem was addressed at the first referee seminar, held in Rome in 1967.

In 1993, the EKU changed its name to the European Karate Federation. Since 1997, the President of the EKF has been Antonio Espinos of Spain, who has also served as the president of WKF since 1998.

References

  1. ↑ "EKF Statutes Art. 1, Sec. 1" (PDF). Wkf-web.net. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  2. ↑ Black Belt. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Arriaza, Berat Jakupi. "Chapter 16: Karate". In Kordi, Ramin; Maffulli, Nicola; Wroble, Randall R. et al. Combat Sports Medicine. p. 288. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Arriaza, Rafael. "Chapter 16: Karate ka". In Kordi, Ramin; Maffulli, Nicola; Wroble, Randall R. et al. Combat Sports Medicine. p. 288. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Chronik des deutschen Karateverbandes". Chronik-karate.de. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Arriaza, Rafael. "Chapter 16: Karate". In Kordi, Ramin; Maffulli, Nicola; Wroble, Randall R. et al. Combat Sports Medicine. p. 288. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Sports Shorts". Apnewsarchive.com. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  8. ↑ AAU Rebuilds Karate. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Black Belt. Books.google.co.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  10. ↑ "HISTORY OF KARATE". Kkhd.hr. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "Black Belt". Books.google.com. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  12. ↑ "WORLD KARATE FEDERATION - WKF History". Wkf-web.net. Retrieved 21 December 2014.

External links