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The
Best In The World.
In 2001 for the very first time, the W.K.A. (World Karate
Association) staged a tournament in Great Britain entitled The W.K.A.
Premier League. The introduction of this competition was to establish a
base one-off annual tournament for semi-contact and forms that all the
member countries within the W.K.A. can emulate and stage their own
versions of in 2002. The idea being, as mentioned in this magazine
previously, to find true world champions in semi-contact and forms to
feature in a ratings system. So at a glance, anyone from around the world,
promoter, fighter, challenger, can look at the league tables on the
website and know that the champion at the top of the tables is truly a
world category number one fighter or kata performer.
As every good competitor knows, be it at national, international or world
level tournaments, everyone can have a good day or a bad day. Sometimes
you even get a competitor who makes it onto their own national squad,
everything goes well for them at a world championships and they come home
with the gold medal and of course the kudos and accolade of being a world
champion. But, one has to ask, is this a true representation of that
particular fighter/competitors talent or did they just have a lucky day?
At this point, to be fair to all world champions, anyone who makes it to
the finals of their weight division on the mats at a world championships,
whether a fluke or not, should they take the gold, they truly and
deservedly are world champions. But, this still does not get around the
point whereby so often world champions are never heard of again. Yet the
regular as is termed, ‘bread and butter fighter’ makes the national squad
time and time again and also appears on the world mats. Sometimes not
always making it, other times grabbing the bronze or silver but never the
gold, which always seems to elude them. As the old saying goes ‘always the
bridesmaid, but never the bride’.
So the question posed, of these two scenarios, who is the better
fighter/competitor? I don’t think an armchair hack like myself could come
up with the answer to this. In order to ascertain who is truly worthy of
the title ‘the best in the world’ the W.K.A. in its wisdom emulating other
sports decided to base a fighters/kata performers results over three world
recognised and sanctioned tournament events. With various amounts of
points being awarded for first, second and third. The only proviso being
that for a competitor to be amongst the points they have to attend at
least two of the three competitions. The competitions are each country’s
own national championships or as some people term it, the team selection
championships (usually held at the beginning of the year). Then there is
the W.K.A. Premier League, usually held in late spring, culminating with
the W.K.A.s annual World Championships (normally August/September).
You begin to see that a competitor does not necessarily have to win gold's
at all these events to become overall ‘best of the best’ and head the
world rating tables. Take for instance English semi contact fighter Danny
Harrison .Danny has been around a long time on the open circuits, almost a
permanent member of the W.K.A. England squad and already a double world
champion. But a couple of years ago at a world championships he went out
in the preliminary rounds. Why? It could have been a bad day, his opponent
just got lucky, bad decisions, bad refereeing. Whatever the reason, he was
expected to be amongst the medals, but wasn’t. Everyone and anyone who
frequents the open circuits knows that Danny Harrison is far better than
his performance was in the U.S.A. But for all intents and purposes, the
winner of his division rightly becomes the world champion. But the
following week or the following month, pit those two opponents against one
another at other competitions and the money would be on Danny to win. He
has the talent, the experience and the knowledge to do so. But for anyone
who did not understand the semi-contact game, it would always be the gold
medallist from the worlds who in their eyes would be the best there is.
Just to put the record straight at this point, Danny Harrison took the
gold in Vienna and also through this new W.K.A. ratings system and his
points accrued, now ranks ‘the best of the best’ at his weight category in
the world. As does young Robbie Hughes who is a world champion several
times over. Readers will note that at the end of this article is the full
up to date W.K.A. ratings tables/lists for the semi-contact divisions. As
earlier mentioned these ratings have been based and comprised of points
earned over this year, 2001. In some of the weight categories in the
various divisions, you will note that they are listed as ‘vacant’. This
simply means no-one in that weight category has aspired in 2001 because of
the points system to earn the title ‘best of the best’.
These ratings will now last for twelve months. Unless of course one of
these top champions is challenged by their peers for a crack at snatching
their title. Again, not just anyone can challenge one of these true
champions. The challenger be it from this country or from another W.K.A.
member country must follow the criteria as stated in this article. In
other words he or she must have points themselves and have competed in at
least two of the three competitions mentioned in this article. For
clarification it could mean that say a Canadian fighter who competed at
the world championships (not necessarily have been placed, just attended
and competed as a team member) and also earned points at his own national
Canadian championships would be eligible to contend and issue a challenge
for the top slot. |
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