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Recent Updates
* New Club applications
* Letter from WKF re: Olympic Status
* Recent NCCP clinic review
* New KOA Medical Forms
* Sensei Celebija given Achievement Award
* North American Cup 2008 standings and photos
* 1st Karate Symposium registration
* Canadian Nationals Section - See Provincial Team
Karate Ontario Association AGM
This year’s AGM will be held on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 10:00am at the Sport Alliance Building in Toronto. The address is 1185 Eglinton Ave. East.
A meeting agenda will follow shortly.
Letter from WKF regarding Olympics
Recent Coaching Clinic
In the effort to meet standards of coaching excellence, Karate Ontario coaches met in Markham on May 3rd & 4th in order to hone,
share, and refine their coaching skills and knowledge. The coaching workshop was led by Sensei Timothy Suzuki who is a certified Learning
Facilitator for both Multi-Sport “A” and “B” courses of the National Coaching Certification Program. This course followed the new CBET format that
included the ethical decision making and planning a practice. Thirteen coaches from Penetang, Cobourg, Toronto, Mississauga, Markham, Oakville, Pickering,
and Oshawa help to contribute to an educational, valuable, and enjoyable experience. If you would like to know more about the NCCP, please visit www.coachesontario.ca.
Sensei Zvonko Celebija awarded Syl Apps Achievement Award
THE SYL APPS SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD is presented annually by the Province of Ontario to Ontario volunteers who have contributed to the development of sport in the province. Sensei Zvonko Celebija received this prestigious award at the ceremony on April 24, 2008. The only other person from karate sport that received this award was Sensei Masami Tsuruoka in 1980.
Toronto Open 2008 and 1st Karate Symposium
"The main idea of the Symposium is to attract research articles and other original works in the field of karate training
and teaching from Instructors, Coaches, MDs, etc., close to our organization and karate community at large in order to improve
theory as well as practice of karate training."
Click here to view the TORONTO OPEN information package
Read more about the symposium HERE
New Safety Measures for Combat Sports in Ontario
"The government shares a commitment with all PSOs to ensure that their athletes are training and competing in the safest possible circumstances and each PSO that has received formal recognition status from the Province of Ontario is required to ensure that appropriate safety standards are applied at each competition held under the auspices of a recognized PSOs."
Read the official letter here ...
2008 North American Cup - Toronto, Ontario
The North American Karate Cup was recently held here in Ontario. This prestigious event brings together the top 2 fighters from Canada, USA and Mexico to
compete in a round robin kumite tournament. Every second year this competition is used as a qualifier for the Pan-American Games. Our Ontario athletes did extremely
well as did other members of the Canadian Team. Many distinguished guests were also in attendance including the NKA executive council, Canadian coaches, current and former
world karate champions and WKF licensed referees.
Congratulations to the Canadian Team for winning first place overall
Karate Ontario would like to thank all of the volunteers, referees, athletes and spectators for making this event a success! Please check out the photos in our
photo gallery under "North American Cup".
Final Point Standings for March 2008
KOA Board Minutes - January 2008
New Sport Safety Courses for Karate Ontario members
1. Sport Injury Prevention and Care (SIPAC) and CPR 'A'
2. Sports Wrapping and Taping
Please see the poster below for more information or contact (416) 426-7314 or email: hstephens@sportalliance.com
Information poster
Ontario athletes represent at Paris International Open
The Paris International Open took place on January 19th and 20th, 2008 at the Pierre Charboneau Centre in the city of Paris. The former Golden League,
WKF rules tournament is known for its high level of competition. The tournament was extremely well run with nearly 50 countries participating.
Canada sent a team of 18 athletes along with our 2 coaches Manuel Monzon and Paul Oliver.
Ontario had 8 athletes selected to be on the team including Saeed Baghbani, Nassim Varasteh, Trevor Sheppard, Chris de Sousa Costa, Sam Shaffie, Ada Bratic,
Jelena Miljkovic and Justin Rosa.
Their results were as follows:
Saeed Baghbani fought in the -70kg division with 34 athletes representing their countries. In the first round Saeed defeated the Netherlands 3 – 1.
Second round matched him with David Ariel (USA) and he was again victorious 7 – 0. Saeed then faced Kenji Grillon, a very tough fighter from France and lost.
In the repechage rounds Saeed defeated Belgium 3 – 1 and Norway 4 -2 to win the BRONZE medal!
Nassim Varasteh represented Canada in the Women’s -60kgs and Women’s Open Weight Kumite. In the -60kgs Nassim fought and defeated Madagascar 6 – 0.
Second round Nassim lost narrowly to Turkey 1 – 0.
In the Open Weight Nassim proved why she is one of the best fighters in the world winning a SILVER medal. Nassim had an amazing performance defeating Belarus 6 – 0, second round 3 – 1,
France 1 – 0, Turkey 3 – 0 and Finland 8 – 2.
Nassim was the only athlete from Canada to make the finals. Her final fight was reminiscent of the 2007 World Championships, facing World Champion Eva Medvedova. This fight was extremely close from the beginning and went into overtime with a score of 1-1. No points were scored
in overtime leaving the match to the judges decision. Nassim narrowly lost the judges decision.
Ada Bratic fought in the +60kg Female division with 25 competitors. First round Ada beat Mexico 1 – 0 and then beat Sweden 3 – 0. She then lost in a very close fight against
France 2 – 1 in overtime putting her into the repechage rounds. In repechage Ada beat the Netherlands 9 – 4 and won the BRONZE medal by defeating Turkey 4 – 1.
Trevor Sheppard represented Canada in Men’s Individual Kata. There were 29 participants in this division. Trevor defeated Norway in the first round with a 3 – 0 decision.
Second round Sheppard faced Al Harbi Yousef from Kuwait (Jr. World Medalist) and again won 2 -1. Sheppard then faced France and lost a very close 2 -1 decision and did not have the
opportunity to compete in repechage.
Chris de Sousa Costa fought in both Men’s +80kgs and Men’s Open Weight. In +80kgs Chris faced a very strong fighter from Mexico and lost 4 – 0 and did not have the chance to fight in the repechage rounds.
In Open Weight Chris lost his first round to Georgia 5 – 1 but came back very strong in the next two rounds defeating Portugal 1 – 0 and Kuwait 6 – 1. Chris then fought D. Sabanovic from Netherlands,
a multiple time World medalist and lost a close fight 2 – 0.
This put Chris in the top 16 out of 72 fighters!
Justin Rosa competed in Men’s -75kgs and Men’s Open Weight and had a very difficult draw in both divisions. Justin faced Azerbaidjan (brother of World Champion Rafael Aghayev) and lost in a close fight 1 – 0.
In the Open Weight Justin fought a very big Heavyweight from Congo and defeated him 4 – 1 and was later defeated by Portugal.
Sam Shaffie represented Canada in the Men’s -80kgs and Men’s Open Weight Kumite. In the first round Sam fought France and lost. He was then matched up against the Netherlands and won 2- 1. A victory in his
next match would have put him in the top 8 but he suffered a narrow loss to Sweden in overtime.
Jelena Miljkovic fought in Women’s +60kgs and Open Weight Kumite. Jelena drew Japan in the first round and lost a very close fight 5 - 4 in overtime. This placed Jelena in the repechage round against Sweden. This was again very close with Sweden scoring the winning point with 1 second left.
In the Open Weight Jelena defeated Belgium in the first round 5 -1. She was also victorious in her second round and faced France in the third. She unfortunately lost and did not have
the opportunity to fight in the repechage.
Junior Worlds - Coach's Report
View the results and details of the Junior World Karate Championships from Team Coach Paul Oliver HERE
Junior World Championships - Istanbul, Turkey
The Junior World Karate Championships are now taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. This is the biggest Junior Worlds ever with almost 1100 competitors from over 82 countries.
Ontario athlete Nadja Bratic made Canadian karate history by winning a silver medal in +57kg female kumite. This is Canada's highest Junior medal of any kind and the only kumite
medal ever. Nadja was defeated in the finals by an athlete from the host country of Turkey. Our most senior athletes are competing tomorrow.
We have just received news of another great result at the Junior Worlds! Ada Bratic won a bronze medal in Junior Women's 18 to 20 year old Kumite! Congratulations Ada and Nadja!
Sheppard wins New York Open
The 13th Annual New York Open Karate Championships were held in New York City on Sunday, October 7th.
This USA-NKF sanctioned tournament hosted competitors from Canada, USA and Europe. Ontario's Trevor Sheppard won the
Men's Japanese Kata division and was placed in a pool with the winners of all other kata divisions to compete
for the Grand Championship. Sheppard won 5 unanimous decisions and was crowned overall kata champion of the tournament.
Ontario wins 6 medals in Ecuador!
The Junior Canadian Karate Team recently travelled to Quito, Ecuador to compete at the
Pan-American Karate Championships. The team returned home with an outstanding
14 medals including 3 Gold, 4 Silver and 7 Bronze. 6 of these medals were won by Ontario
athletes. Despite the large amount of competitors (462) and the high elevation of Quito
(9400 feet above sea level) our athletes' hard work and dedication paid off! Ontario athletes
placed as follows:
GOLD MEDAL WINNERS
Chris de Sousa Costa (Team Captain),
Nadja Bratic,
Leirick Chung
SILVER MEDAL WINNERS
Leivin Chung
BRONZE MEDAL WINNERS
Ada Bratic (Team Captain),
Leivin Chung
Congratulations to all of the athletes!
KAO is Now Accepting Sponsorship Partners
KAO promotes the ideals of excellence and fair play. Our sponsors share the prestige that such alliance with KAO association conveys. Our primary method of communication with our membership is through our website. Traffic on www.KarateOntario.org continues to grow. It is currently 20% over last year with an increase to 4500 unique visitors per month achieving upwards of 100,000 impressions. This is an average of 22 pages per visitor per month making KAO’s website a valuable and integral part of its dedicated membership. For the 2007/2008 season, KAO is offering our sponsors an opportunity to share their message by providing ad space on our website.
Interested parties may download our sponsorship package here:
Special
thanks to Dick Grant for providing photographs