The 41st European Karate Championships for Cadets, Juniors & u21 Competitors Lisbon 2014

Last weekend I had the great fortune of attending the 41^st European Karate Federation Tournament for Cadets (14-15yrs), Juniors (16-17) and under 21’s held in Lisbon, Portugal.  This is the first time I have officiated at this particular tournament since becoming eligible through Euro qualification in June 2012.  The tournament was superbly organised and held over three days – Friday 7^th, Saturday 8^th and Sunday 9^th Feb 2014.  I attended as part of a Team England contingent led by Dale Gamble (England Chief Referee), Billy Brennan, Steve Coupland, Peter Bibby, Brian Jarvis, Paul Gunn and Nigel Blood.  We also met up with Scotish Referees Grant Bonar and Rab McQueen, Welsh Ref Jason Ashcroft, Northern Ireland Ref Violet Brown & Irish Ref Mike Hogan together with a whole host of European & World officials both new to me and familiar.

 

We arrived on Thursday, myself and Steve Coupland flying from Stansted by Ryanair whom we were both pleasantly surprised with.  They have significantly upped the ante in terms of passenger service and were a pleasure to fly with.  We met up with Billy, Brian, Paul and Nigel at Lisbon airport and transferred to the VIP Executive Arts Hotel just a ten minute walk from the very impressive MEO Arena in the Oriente Business district of Lisbon.

After checking in to the hotel we congregated in Steve’s and my hotel room to go through the Referee’s questions paper – 220 questions of varying difficulty with no published answers.  Steve was having to sit the exams for both kumite and kata which has to be done every two years.  After debating the answers to five difficult questions for what seemed an eternity, we retreated to The Fifty’s American Diner for a burger feed to give our brains some well-deserved nourishment at a very reasonable price.

Steve then departed for his exams at the headquarters hotel and the rest of us joined up with Dale and Peter flying in from Manchester.  After changing into officials gear we then joined Steve for the Referees meeting.  This time it was a joint briefing with the coaches as well and was well delivered by the EKF Referees Commission.

The briefing covered off in detail the requirements of the competition, one of which was the total ban on use of mobile phones any-where near the tatami’s by the officials.  One of the main points stressed was to allow only two seconds for any grabbing but followed by a further two seconds to allow a score to be made if the throw was successful.  In Kata one of the key points was the importance of correct Hikite or pull back of the fist.  All too many competitors hit themselves with the returning arm to try to demonstrate power in the technique.  This is always easily spotted by the referees but is all too prevalent often even at this level.

Tatami’s and Tatami Managers/Assistant TM’s were allocated – I was Tatami 4 for Kata and Tatami 1 for Kumite.

It was then off to a traditional Portuguese Restaurant for evening meal along with Team Scots Refs Grant & Rab followed by retirement for the evening.