Bratislava the charming Slovakian Capital. 8th WUKF World Karate Championships 20-23.06 2019

Jacek Lipinski

Bratislava is the youngest capital in Europe. It is set along the Danube River by the border with Austria and Hungary, the only capital in the world that borders with two countries. The city and old town is small which allows it to be easily explored. It is a city, which comes alive at night. Tourists come out to the streets, they stroll through the charming city roads, see the outdoor café culture and take photographs of the picturesque city.

When walking through the streets of the Old Town, make sure you pay attention to what’s on the ground. Gilded little crowns in the pavement trace the route of kings through the town. It follows the coronation trail that took place in Bratislava from the 16th century.

Cumil the sewer worker is a well-known statue in Bratislava. The statue is cheeky-looking sewer worker is poking out of a manhole with his chin resting on his arms. People usually queue up to get selfies with Cumil. 

Napoleon’s soldier. Napoleon had never been in Bratislava. However, he has a statue in which he is leaning over a bench, hence the name Napoleon’s soldier. The statue is located on the main square.

The Bratislava Castle stands on an isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians directly above the Danube river in the middle of Bratislava. 
Michael’s Gate is the only city gate that has been preserved from the medieval fortifications and ranks among the oldest town buildings. It was built at around the year 1300. The 51 meters tall tower has seven floors, the view from terrace is sublime. It gives one of the best views of the city. The bulbous copper roof of Michael’s Gate is one of the main symbols of Bratislava. 
St Elizabeth’s Church is commonly known as the blue church. Everything from the exterior to the interior is blue. It is a Hungarian Secessionist Catholic church located in the eastern part of the Old Town in Bratislava.

The 8th WUKF World Karate Championship was a time and a place where SKC members made history. I thank those who believed in us and chanted our names as we competed. Thank you to those that continuously ask me when I’ll stop competing. This only motivates me more. It the was the second consecutive year I was the WUKF World Karate Champion in the individual kumite category. Winning my 12th gold medal, all from various federations in karate I proved to myself that it’s important: to follow your passions and show others your passion, wake up your sporting emotions, being a role model to younger sportspersons, prove to everyone that even during health battles (mine was almost 10 years ago, but I am still affected to this day) you get up and keep fighting, no matter what life throws at you. I am grateful for the individuals who have a positive impact in my life: my understanding family, the whole SKC Team, the individuals and businesses, which support us. You all are my motivation.

I am very satisfied with my starts, the correct cycle of training and diet is the key to success. The whole SKC Team in my opinion did fantastic; they performed the best they have ever. They showed the their high level of karate. I was very please with the female senior kumite team (Ewa Lipinska, Malgorzata Wozniak, Tamara Lipinska, Agnieszka Wyrostek) performance. They earned a silver medal. Each year the number of competitors rises, higher performance levels and thus it is harder to win a medal. The female senior kumite team only needed a couple more points in order to earn a gold medal. They really weren’t that far off. I was slightly disappointed at the organisation of this competition. There was a lack of information about the starting times of each category. This meant it was very difficult to warm up properly.

Overall the SKC Team was made up of 26 competitors and 5 coaches. We won 10 medals in total. 2 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze. In comparison to last years World karate championships in Scotland, we won 4 extra medals. A great success!! 2,300 competitors took part in this competition from 83 federations in the Ice Stadium – Nepela Arena.

Participating in a competition on such a large scale involves months of preparation in advance. This includes: endurance, strength and speed training. The easiest part is saying yes to participating in such a competition. It’s harder to create and follow a plan in order to achieve success. Our preparation for this competition spanned over 6 months with trainings in the dojo, gym and in the fresh air. It involved lots of commitment and sacrifice.  A positive of preparing is the ability to spend time with your team. You become a large source of motivation. Those that did not participate in the competition also had the opportunity to train with those that were competing. This in-turn was a win-win situation as the overall karate level of the club increased substantially. Educating the parents on karate also played a vital part. 

WUKF

Early Tuesday morning we met the team at the airport. There was an atmosphere filled with excitement. The flight was very quick. There was barely time for a quick nap. We landed in Vienna to beautiful sunny weather, which lasted to the end of our trip. There was a bus waiting for us to transfer us to the hotel in Bratislava.

Each World Karate Championship is pretty similar: hotel, technical check-in, coach check-in, training sessions, opening ceremony, exploring and the competition itself. After 2 days of acclimatising the day came to begin the 4 day competition. Competing is not the only thing that happens during the competition. We meet old friends, make new ones, see new techniques, exchange thoughts with other competitors and a complete integration of the team occurs.

It’s time to talk about our achievements. ALEXANDER WOJCIECHOWSKI won a gold medal in kids kumite and a silver medal in kata. This was a great achievement by such a young competitor.

Wieslaw Krasowski won a bronze medal in male individual senior kumite by winning against many former world title holders.

Adam Zietalewicz won a bronze medal in male individual kumite 35-39 years old. If Adam had won his fight then he would be fighting against me for the gold medal position.

Piotr Sznicer won a bronze medal in male individual kumite +40 years old.

Malgorzata Wozniak only needed a little of luck to win her fight to get into the final. She therefore won a bronze medal in female individual kumite +40 years old.

The female senior shobu ippon kumite team (Alexandra Kister, Agnieszka Wyrostek,Joanna Krasowska, Tamara Lipinska) earned a bronze medal.

Another bronze medal was won by the female ippon shobu rotation +35 years old team (Urszula Gryncewicz, Ewa Lipinska, Joanna Krasowska, Malgorzata Wozniak)

The other SKC Team members weren’t far off from medal positions. They scored highly in each of their competitions. Bratislava waved us goodbye with beautiful sunny weather. All of us had learnt from the experience we encountered and are optimistic for future competitions.