This weekend, the long planned EJU Kata tour will commence and the first destination is Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Whilst the city hosts annual EJU kata events, with it being part of the tour now, several introduced innovations took place prior which primarily aimed at improving the quality of the kata competition as well as standardising the categories. There are 86 pairs from 17 countries and 4 continents registered for the weekend, guaranteeing high skilled performances. In more details, katame-no-kata received the highest entry with 23 pairs.
From now on, all EJU kata tournaments will be held under the same conditions with unique IT support, CARE system at the events as well as the start of a ranking list for both, competitors and kata judges.
The EJU kata team have also encouraged the introduction of younger age categories, and now, those are fully aligned with the age categories of shiai. Additionally, kata judge seminars will be held at every EJU kata tournament this year to improve the quality of judging. At every tournament the team will hold exams for new kata judges as an incentive to create young kata judges.
Traditionally, the tournament in Louvain-la-Neuve belongs to one of the highest featured tournament in terms of quality and organisation. Undoubtedly, this weekend will be as fine as ever before.
Provisional program
Attention: The schedule may be modified according to total number of entries and circumstances of competition. `* The start time will be confirmed once the final number of athletes is known.
Good luck to all participants in Belgium.
Author: Szandra Szogedi