December 4, 2011
Ukrainian team participated in 1st Open Kyokushinkan Karate Tournament among juveniles and juniors, which was held in Moscow. 452 sportsmen from 39 countries participated in this competition. Ukrainian Federation was represented by 11 sportsmen, most of them successfully passed through the first round, but only Zvonyk Dan (1 dan, Donetsk) got to the final.
Although the level of the tournament was very high, it seems that refereeing was biased. Our sportsmen struck Japanese sportsmen many times, judges showed “waza-ari”, but referees cancelled this decision and didn’t score it. As a result, in most of the fights victory was gained by sportsmen from other Kyokushinkan federations. And in the final fight Zvonyk Dan was actually better, but the victory was given to his opponent.
