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.