At 3 May 2008 year in the Palace of culture and sports in Varna was held Republican Championship for children, youths, girls and women, organized by Bulgarian Karate Kyokushin Federation.

Exactly at 11:00 o`clock the event was opened by the vice – president of National agency of youth and sports Mihail Balabanov.

 

The Championship was exceptionally successful, as in the competitions participated 240 fighters from the whole country who detached champions in 31 categories. The whole technical level of the competitors was high and the majority of the fights offered equivalent and attractive duels.

 

The referee-ship was also estimated very positive. After was made an inquiry for best judge on the Championship, was determined sensei Asen Asenov (4^th dan) from Club “Asken’’, Stara Zagora/Bulgaria. Sensei Andriyan Ivanov from Club Kyokushin, Gabrovo/ Bulgaria was classified on second place.  Both received charters and medals.

 

The competition was also a qualification for the European Championship 2008 women and men overall category, kata, veterans, youth and girls – senior, which will be hold at 22 November 2008 year in Varna/ Bulgaria. The qualifications were in 5 categories for youths and girls – senior.

 

Gratitude to Club ‘’Ichigeki Kyokushin’, Varna who was host of the event, as well as to all clubs, sensei and sempai, joined in the Championship.

Congratulations to all participants who had the courage to participate in the duels.

 

Special gratitude to the general sponsors of the Championship and Bulgarian Karate Kyokushin Federation: Insurance and Reinsurance Company ‘’Armeec’’, Central Cooperative Bank, Black Sea Construction Holding.

 

TEAM  CLASSIFICATION  BY  MEDALS

PLACE	CLUB	CITY	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE
1	Asekn	St. Zagora	9	5	8
2	Ichigeki-kyokushin	Varna	8	8	12
3	Samurai	Bourgas	4	4	9
4	Bushi - do	Tchernomorets	3	2	5
5	Кyokushin	Jambol	3	2	3
6	Samurai	St. Zagora	1	2	5
7	Forta	Кostenec	1	2	2
8	Кyokushin	Novi Pazar	1	0	2
9	Shogun	Sofia	1	0	0
10	Кyokushin	Levski	0	3	2
11	Кyokushin	Gabrovo	0	2	6
12	Nadezhda	Gabrovo	0	2	1
13	Katana	V. Tarnovo	0	0	1
13	Forta	Sofia	0	0	1

From 16 April to 20 April in Varna, Bulgaria was held the first official EKKO camp of the representatives karate kyokushin teams of Europe and Russia. 115 national representatives, referees, fighters and presidents of the Bulgarian clubs participated. Bulgaria, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, England, Russia, Italy, Germany and Slovakia took part. The camp received a very high valuation from all the Shihan, referees and competitors.

 

During 3 days were held nine trainings. Seven Shihan were observing all the competitors and have given ratings for technique, strength, tenacity and more. Finally was determined the Representative Team of Europe. Each country was presented by maximum 5 participants. A big success achieved the Bulgarian fighters – from 5 fighters – 4 of them came in the representative team. From 115 competitors only 19 found place among the chosen. To come in the team the fighters had to receive at least 5 from 7 votes. Finally the happy men who were chosen for the European team received certificates from Shihan Hollander.

 

Category under 70 kg: Andras Grof /Hungary/, Nikola Kirov /Bulgaria/, Victor Texeira /Netherlands/, Sithembiso Majozi / Great Britain/, Abdelhakime Zaine / Belgium/.

 

Category under 80 kg: Hannes Eschmer /Germany/, Stiliyan Petrov /Bulgaria/, Baptis Delaunai /France/, Mladen Banushev /Bulgaria/, Raimon de Hoog /Netherlands/.

 

Category under 90 kg: Pablo Estensoro /Spain/, Alejandro Navarro /Spain/, Lucian Gogonel /Romania/, Mihail Kzhak /Poland/.

 

Category  + 90 kg: Petar Martinov /Bulgaria/, Gema Belkhodja /France/, Julien Portetier

/ France/, Hector Cuerdena /Spain/, Carol Chieshlik /Poland/.

 

Among the participants were remarkable the following names:

 

Lucian Gogonel/Romania/ -World Champion under 70 kg. and seven times European Champion in three different categories.

 

Alejandro Navarro /Spain/ –  two times European Champion in overall category.

 

Petar Martinov /Bulgaria/  - European Champion in heavyweight.

 

Stiliyan Petrov /Bulgaria/, Pablo Estensoro /Spain/, Mihkail Kzhak /Poland/, Karol Chieshlik /Poland/ - many times european medalists.

 

On Russian side many competitors took part.

 

Mihkail Kozlov – many times champion of Russia.

 

Rustam Unezhev – World Champion Ashihira karate, 3^rd place at the European Championship, top 16  at the last World Championship.

 

Darmen Sadvokasov – 4^th place at the last World Championship overall category.

 

Adlan Abzotov – 3rd place at All Japan Championship, many times champion of Russia.

 

Ilya Karpenko, Sergey Uvitskiy, Nikita Tomchuk, Andrey Bykovi took part also.

 

The organization passed at very high level. Everyone estimated very high the trainings and the Bulgarian hospitality.

 

As a team Bulgaria came out first in the U.S Weight Category Karate Championships which took place on 27 January, 2008 (Sunday) in LA, California. Official guests of the competition were Shihan BobbyLowe  ,  Shihan Katsuhito Gorai  and  Sensei Dolf Lundgren.


The Bulgarian team came back with:
17 cups in total:
7 champions
5 vice-champions
4 bronze medals
1 award for best technique (Alexander Petrov), a lot of applause and many compliments. The competition was not easy. The distance between Bulgaria and LA is huge (10 000 km), there were 3 flights to be changed and 10 hours time difference. But our team proved that nothing could stop them.

Despite the short period for preparation (3 weeks) many of the fights finished with wazari or ipon made by the Bulgarian fighters. The victories were achieved in the true spirit of Kyokushin, so were the few losses!


Bellow are the results of our competitors. Interviews with the champions and Sensei Traikov and Sensei Asenov will follow soon. There are also a lot of pictures to be uploaded.

Men

Category -70 kg:
Alexander Petrov – 1st place and an award best technique. He won the final scoring ipon with djodan hidza geri.

Nikola Kirov – 3rd place
Georgi Vasilev – 4th place

Category -80 kg:
Stilian Petrov – 1st place
Mladen Banushev – 2nd place

Category +90 kg:
Petar Martinov – 2nd place – he lost after two draws
Hristo Hristov – 3rd place

Women:

Category -55 kg:
Anelia Asenova – 1st place – she won the final doing ipon /djodan mawashi geri/, came out 3rd at kata
Ivelina Banusheva – 3rd place – kumite

Category -65 kg:
Daniela Dineva – 2nd place

Category +65 kg:
Danaila Cherneva – 1st place
Nadezda Petrova – 2nd place

Junior Boys under 18 years:

Dean Batkov – 1st place – 3 victories in the first round. He won the final with ipon – ushiro geri.

Junior Girls under 14 years:
Alexandra Marinova – 1st place

Junior Girls 15-17 years:
Stanislava Boycheva – 1st place
Ivelina Dimitrova – 2nd place

We would like to thank the general sponsor of the Bulgarian national team – Insurance Company Armeetz.

Our boys and girls once again made us proud to be Bulgarians!

  
  Everton Teixeira (Brazil) is the new WORLD CHAMPION. He met Jan Soukoup (Czech Republic) at the final and won the fight doing ipon with a low kick. Artur Ovanesian (Armenia) won against Darmen Sadvokasov (Russia) in the fight for the third place. After many extensions he got 3 judges voting for him and 2 giving a draw.






Rewarding the top fighters in the championship

    The whole championship was full of surprises – many ipons and wazaris. Lechi Kurbanov (Russia) lost against Ilia Karpenko (Russia) – he received an unexpected jodan mawashi in the head. May be he had underestimated his opponent or after having made a knock out to Hristo Hristov (Bulgaria), Lechi was a bit nervous and decided to show that he can manage without his winning technique – tobi ushiro mawashi geri.

    Petar Martinov (Bulgaria) lost against Anderson da Silva (Brazil) after a 7 minute fight, another draw and one board less broken.

    Alejandro Navarro (Spain) did ipon with ushiro mawashi geri and won against his opponent Yoje Koguri (Japan).

    Pablo Estenoso (Spain) knocked out his opponent Fabiano da Silva (Brazil) with a hidza geri.

    All this led to the quarter finals where the draw was the f ollowing: Ewerton Teixeira (Brazil) – Darmen Sadvokasov (Russia); Jan Soukoup (Czech Republic) – Artur Ovanesian (Armenia). For the first time there were no Japanese in the top four.

    Lechi Kurbanov won the award for Tameshivari with the record 31 boards broken.

    Europe and Russia gave a very strong performance - there were 6 European and 9 Russian fighters in the last day.

    Well done for the Bulgarian fighters as well! They fought full heartedly and came in the top 32 in the world of Kuokushinkai. Congratulations and welcome back home!

picture with the top fighters

    Bellow are the official results of the championship:

Results:
1. Ewerton Teixeira - Brazil
2. Jan Sokup - Czech R.
3. Artur Hovhannisian - Armenia
4. Darmen Sadvokasov - Russia
5. Andrei Stepin - Russia
6. Alejandro Navarro - Spain
7. Eduardo Tanaka - Brazil
8. Tatsuya Murata - Japan

Best Technique Award - Artur Hovhanissian
Best Spirit Award - Tatsuya Murata
Freshman Award - Tatsuya Murata
Tameshiwari Award - Lechi Kurbanov (31 boards)

We have the latest news from Japan!

In the second day of the championship Petar Martinov managed to eliminate two competitors – one from New Zealand and Andrei Chirkov from Russia. Our competitor won his first fight with wazari making ushiro mawashi with a jump against the impressive New Zealander (weighting 115 kg). The second fight against the Russian karateka was won quickly in the regular time.

As a whole, Europe is doing really well. Pablo Estensoro is knocking out everybody who is standing on his way to the title. So far he has made 4 wazari with hidza geri djodan. Navaro is in perfect shape and he is moving quickly towards the finals.

On the third day of the championship there are only 32 fighters remaining. Six of them are from Europe: 2 Bulgarian fighters – Petar Martinov and Zahari Damianov; 2 Spanish fighters – Alejandro Navaro and Pablo Estensoro; 1 Armenian – Artur Vhovanisian and the Czech competitor Jan Sokoup. Only five fights stay on the way of the future world champion to the golden medal.

The final day will start with tameshiveri. What is coming next is the fight of Petar Martinov against  the Brazilian competitor Andriano da Silva, followed by the fight of Diego da Silva /Brazil/ against Tatsua Murata /Japan/. Everton Teixeira /who is the favourite of this championship/ is next.


Yesterday Stilian Petrov and Hristo Hristov were eliminated after hard fights with some of the favourite competitors in the championship.

Hristo Hristov fought against Lechi Kurbanov (pointed out as the top fighter of Russia) and Stilian Petrov lost after a disputable fight with Godzeri Kanadze /Russia/ (European champion category -90 kg for 2005).

Fingers crossed for our guys and let’s wish them to continue with their good performance till the very end of the championship!

Welcome fellows karate fighters! Here you will find information about the kyokushin in Bulgaria. We are doing many camps, so you have the opportunity to browse a lot of pictures of our Oyama followers. We have photos in the dojo doing kumite, even knockout pics.
What's up next? We expect some of us to go to Japan in the uchideshi program, where they will learn to make ipon in the competition more often. They will also do a lot of kumite. And yes, they'll meet the president of the Kyokushinkaikan Kancho Shokey Matsui - one of the real students of Sosai Oyama.
Stay in touch and we will show you the world of kyokushin martial art. So, let's feel together the spirit of ICHIGEKI.