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Referees News 2012

Posted 22nd May 2012
Chief Referee's Report from the Senior European Championships in Tenerife, Spain

Representing England... Dale gamble, Billy Brennan, Brian Noble, Vince Parker, Steve Coupland, Tony Dent,and Peter Bibby.

Ivor Thomas was due to attend , but due to personnel circumstances, was not able to make the championships. Also this is the last year in which Ivor will be able to attend WKF European events, due to the age for retirement being 60yrs. So thank you Ivor for your hard work and contribution in representing English referees department in Europe over the last few years

We all arrived at the hotel where the England team and ourselves were staying and we felt part of the squad donned “in our polo shirts... and started to work on the theory questions and rules

Wednesday... Steve, Billy, Brian and Vince all had to recycle to keep their qualifications at European level... this involves re-sitting the theory exams. .all passed with flying colours.

At the briefing, slight changes to the kumite rules were discussed, which also included coaching rules.

And the following mornings Tatamis were allocated.

This year the European championships were expanded to 4 days, with the first 2 days being the elimination rounds and on Saturday and Sunday being the medal bouts.

All English officials were kept busy, even though there was 130 officials. The stadium was very hot, humid and very uncomfortable, and must have been difficult for the competitors as well as the referees.

On Saturday and Sunday, myself, Vince and Brian got selected in the pool of referees for finals.

I had 1 which turned out to be a very boring affair, zero, zero and went to hantei, Brian had 2 which included the world champion Aghayev which was totally the opposite to mine, with plenty of action and also a team kata bout . Vince did very well and was picked to judge on 3 ,plus also 2 as the arbitrator. On Sunday we watched Jonathan Motram take the bronze medal in the Men's kata.

Well done from the referees department and we are looking forward to working with you on the forthcoming referees course.

At the Referees briefing , we were informed that 3 referees had lost their qualification due to unsatisfactory standards, non may I add were from England. More work is needed on the new rules, but basic scoring criteria and penalties are still the same. On a better note, Vince received his 10 years service pin to the European karate federation. He now joins myself, Brian and Billy in the '10 year club'.

In conclusion a good and hard working committed contribution from all the English officials, well done!

Dale Gamble
Chief referee

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