A bag of medals at the Podkarpacie karate championships

A total of 309 competitors from 25 clubs in the Podkarpackie province took part in the event. The fights took place simultaneously on three mats. The main referee of the championship was shihan Andrzej Kruk, the technical referee was sensei Krzysztof Jakubowicz. The event was assessed by 31 referees.

In the Zagórzany arena, Przemyśl Kyokushin Karate Club, trained by Ryszard and Jerzy Makar, was represented by eight competitors who competed in both kata and kumite. The courage and commitment shown by the young fighters resulted in them winning seven multi-coloured discs. The youngest competitor in the club, Irena Skyba, performed best, winning three of her fights in great style, giving her opponents no chance. She won 1st place and her first title of Podkarpacie champion in the girls 9-11 age group, under 35 kg category. Dagmara Kuc in the girls 11-12 age group, under 40 kg category and Aleksander Warwaruk in the boys 17-18 age group, under 60 kg kumite category were also crowned vice-champions of Podkarpacie. Samir Azizow easily won the quarter-final fight, but in the semi-final he had to give way to the current European vice-champion. Ultimately, he finished the championship in 3rd place, in the boys' category 13-14 years, over 65 kg. Three juniors also stood on the third step of the podium - Aleksandra Sawicka and Amelia Siara, competing in the same category, kumite girls 15-16 years, under 50 kg and Natalia Łukaczyk, over 65 kg. Milena Sawicka also competed in the championship, in kata patterns, but she did not manage to get into the medal zone. It is worth adding that there were four representatives of the Przemyśl KKK among the judges: Beata Zielińska, Dariusz Pawłowski, Maciej Macek and Adrian Brykajło.

Representatives of the Przemyśl Kyokushin Karate Club returned home with seven medals. Photo: own collection

Three medals were won in Zagórze by Radosław Bakalus’ protégés, i.e. young karatekas from the Kyokushin Karate Club in Bircza.

As many as 12 medals during the Podkarpacie championships were won by competitors from another club from our region, IFK "Saiha" Karate Kyokushinkai Przemyśl, competing in kumite and kata events. They performed brilliantly in kumite, or fighting. 1st place and the title of Podkarpacie champions were won by: Emilia Czechowicz, Emilia Król, Natalia Czechowicz, Alicja Rodak and Tomasz Rodak. 2nd place was won by: Kamila Litwin and Paweł Bender, and 3rd place by: Nadia Słoniowska, Lena Słoniowska, Anton Ganszyn, Paweł Walaszek and Kornel Słoniowski. The competitors were prepared for the competition by: Marcin Wac, Bartek Malec and Filip Pudlik. The competitors were also helped by a multiple medalist of the most important European and world martial arts events, senpai Grzegorz Kędzierski. The judges included shihan Jan Wac and senpai Justyna Hołyszko.