Coimbra World Championships, with its 610 competitors representing 44 countries from the five continents, ended a very busy year for WAKO. In the beautiful sport-hall of this historical town (seat of one of the oldest universities in Europe), our athletes proved the world of what kind of performances they are able: they are really fantastic, amazing and everybody enjoied. In the end Russia, was again first, followed by Hungary and Italy in the order.
Particularly enjoyable were the competitions in musical forms and aero-kickboxing. In particular, I liked the team competition very much ,really beautiful , won by the Hungarian team with a perfectly synchronized coreography (see photo).
A big crowd followed the finals on Sunday afternoon when ATP ( the national satellite TV) sent us on air for 2 hours live!We had 8 amazing finals full of drama and action.
As WAKO president and in the name of our organization, I would like to thank Groupo Superstar of Mr. Carlos Ramjanali who promoted our event together with Mr. Hugo Leal. They did a great job and we appreciated their hospitality.
After the official participation in the African Games (July) and in the 2nd Asian Indoor Games (October), after three championships in a row (Belgrade, Castro Marim and Coimbra), after having put together more 2000 competitors only in the above mentioned events, WAKO is today undoubtedly the governing body for the sport. And this is why, as Mr. espen Lund wrote:
Facts about WAKO and our international status:
v WAKO is the only international Kickboxing organization accepted by General Association of International Sport Federations (GAISF) and became so in
v WAKO is the only international Kickboxing organization that has signed the World Anti-Doping Code and has implemented Anti-Doping rules in accordance with WADA ( http://www.wada-ama.org/ and “ Code Acceptance ” ).
v WAKO and its Asian regional division, WAKO Asia, is the only international Kickboxing organization accepted by Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and became so in
v WAKO is the only international Kickboxing organization that are a part of the established GAISF Martial Art Games (MAG) under the patronage of IOC (no official website yet but GAISF info@agfisonline.com can be consulted).
v WAKO and its Asian and African regional divisions is the only international Kickboxing organization competing, as demonstration sport, in both Asian Indoor Games (Macau, October 2007) and in African Games (July 2007) for the first time (Asian Indoor Games: http://www.maigoc2007.com/05.php.htm ).
v WAKO has already been confirmed as an “official sport” in next Asian Indoor Games in 2009 scheduled in Vietnam and aims to be included as a demo sport in the next Pan American Games in Guadalajara (Mexico) in 2011.
v WAKO has 108 affiliated member federations and 73 of those affiliated member federations are officially recognized by its NOC’s or Sport Authorities.
v WAKO aim for IOC recognition and will within 15 th December 2007 apply to IOC for such according to the new criteria made by the IOC Executive Committee.
If someone has any doubt about that, please contact us.
I take the chance to wish all our members a Merry Christams and a Very Happy New Year!
Ennio Falsoni
