By delegation of the IJF president, Mr. Marius Vizer, the chairman of the IJF Kata commission, Mr. Franco Capelletti, IJF 10 dan, organized on October 4th, 2017, several meetings of the kata commission including the official draw to finalize the organisation of the event.
Were present: Envic Galea (Malta), Piero Comino (Italy), Michel Kozlowski (Belgium), Daniel De Angelis (Canada), Giacomo Bertoletti (Italy) and Otsuji Hirofumi (Japan), Mukai Mikihiro (Japan), Dimitri R. Nemegaire (Belgium), Gavino Piredda (Italy), Naoky Murata (Japan), and Nico Van Dijk (Netherlands). Were also present the Italian Judo Federation representatives, Domenico Falcone, Massimiliano Benucci, as well as the the representative of the organizing committee, Gavino Piredda.
An other important meeting took place with the delegates from the 5 continents: U.S.A./Pan America Kuniko Takeuchi -Europe Jane Bridge -Asia Koji Komata - Oceania Vincent Bill - Africa Thomas Dunker
Kata is an important aspect of judo and the IJF actively collaborates with the Kodokan to promote katas worldwide.
Together, the IJF President and Kodokan President, Mr. Uemura, have decided to bring the katas in all the Federations that are part of the IJF (196) in order to help the competition dimension with the knowledge and practice of the kata.
The kata must become an important help for clubs/dojo, not only for historical, cultural and traditional knowledge, but for discovering the peculiarities of judo according to the intentions of the founder Professor Jigoro Kano (1860/1938).
In the next two days, 92 couples (184 athletes) representing 30 countries will compete in the Grand Slam and Kata World Championships. 33 referees from 18 countries will be in action on Friday (October 6th) and Saturday (October 7th).
Find hereafter the draw of the competition: