30TH SKDUN WORLD KARATE CHAMPIONSHIP AND VISITING BEAUTIFUL ATHENS

Greece is one of the most popular touristic destinations. Greece welcomed us with monuments, beautiful beaches and delicious local food.

This year the SKDUN(SHOTOKANKARATE DO OF UNITED NATIONS) - 30TH WORLD KARATE CHAMPIONSHIP was held in Chalkida, Greece from 29.09.2023 to 01.10.2023. There was a multitude of competitors from 23 countries such as Kazaskstan, Serbia, India, Lithuania, Kyrgyztan, Syria, Ukraine, USA, China, Poland, Moldovia, Scotland and many more. The SKC team was represented by 3 competitors; Tamara Lipinska, Calypso Simonian and myself. All together we won 2 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze. The SKDUN World Karate Championships held categories both individually and in teams for both kata and kumite.

As always, on the first day we met early hours of the morning at the airport. We quickly checked our luggage in and made our way to the plane. We landed in Athens after a 4 hour flight and met Krzysztof Chalupka (IKA Poland) who joined our team. We rented a car and made our way to Chalkida where the check in for the championships was taking place. We joined the Polish Team and completed our check in, weight and documents were verified. We then grabbed lunch and made our way to the hotel. This had been a tiring day so we had an early night so that we were able to rest and regenerate for our starts tomorrow.

The first day included starts in the Masters categories. Krzysztof won a bronze medal in his category ; KUMITE INDIVIDUAL IPPON SHOBU, 40-49 YEARS, MALE, +82KG. I won a gold medal in my category; KUMITE INDIVIDUAL IPPON SHOBU, 50-59 YEARS, MALE, OPEN. In the team category we won a gold medal KUMITE TEAM, +40 YEARS, MALE, OPEN -CHAŁUPKA KRZYSZTOF, JASIŃSKI MARCIN, LIPIŃSKI JACEK. We were all happy and satisfied with our starts. This day we had some time to explore Chalkida and visit a restaurant on the way back to the hotel.

On the second day of the competition none of our athletes had categories, so we had time to explore Athens. We visited the Acropolis, Panathenaic Stadium - and Olympic Museum, Philopappos monument, Sokratesa Prison. Satisfied with our day we returned to the hotel. 

Sunday was the last day of the competition. In the morning after eating our breakfast we made our way to the sports hall. Tamara and Calypso competed on this day. Tamara won a silver medal in KUMITE INDIVIDUAL IPPON SHOBU SENIORS, +21 YEARS, FEMALE, +58KG. In KUMITE TEAM SENIORS, +21YEARS, FEMALE, OPEN - DUDZIK ANASTAZJA, LIPIŃSKA TAMARA, SIMONIAN CALYPSO won a bronze medal. After the categories we made our way to the airport for our flight back home to London. 

Conclusions:

I really enjoy travelling to places I have not yet visited. When travelling to new places it’s important to have a balance between the sporting aspect of the trip and exploring the countries culture. We were lucky enough to have this balance. All 3 of us gained new experience, we had time to talk and to explore. I had time to exchange experience with other coaches, meet up with friends who I am only able to see at competitions as we live on opposite side of the world. SKDUN always guarantees a high level of karate at its competitions. I would like to take the time to thank my close friend Tomasz Byjos (SKDUN Polska) for making our starts in this championship possible. A big congratulations to Colin Putt the technical director & chief referee, and all the referees, as well as SKDUN President Aurel Patru for the organisation of this championship. The next SKDUN big competition will be the European Karate Championships in Hungary in April 2024.