Karate World Cup Draw Date Announced; Top Contenders Absent from Initial List

The karate World Cup draw ceremony will be held with online participation of four prominent figures in the discipline, while Japan, Italy and Turkey, considered favorites, have not yet registered.

The second Karate World Cup will be held from November 29th to December 1st, with the participation of the world's top 80 teams in the four categories of men's and women's kata and team committee, hosted by China and in Hangzhou.

According to the information published on the website of the tournament until Tuesday morning, 29 countries have registered to participate in this competition, and the names of 51 teams and 245 karatekas have been included in the list of participants. The noteworthy point is the absence of the names of the contending teams of Japan, Italy and Türkiye in the list of registrations up to this stage. Due to the continuation of the registration process, this statistic may change in the coming days.

Iran's national karate team will also participate in this period with two quotas in the men's and women's team committee section and one quota in the women's team kata.

In each of the four competitive divisions, 20 teams are placed in four groups of 5 teams and hold their matches. The first and second teams have made it to the quarter final stage and then they will hold their matches in an elimination format.

According to the announcement of the World Karate Federation (WKF), the drawing ceremony of the second round of the Karate World Cup will be held on October 28, about a month before the start of the competition, in Madrid, Spain. The ceremony will start at 14:00 local time and will be broadcast online. Four prominent karate figures of the world will also participate in this ceremony online.

According to the announcement of the World Federation, four prominent figures of karate will be present in the lottery ceremony online

In the men's team kata, "Antonio Diaz" from Venezuela, the two-time world champion, "Mo Shong Grace Lao" from Hong Kong, the current world champion in the women's team kata, "Elena Quirichi" from Switzerland, the three-time continental champion in the women's team committee, and "Christos Stephanos Zenos" from Greece, the world champion and holder of two continental titles, will participate in the men's team committee.