The World Karate Federation (WKF) is a permanent body governing all styles of Karate and is composed of all the National Karate Federations, worldwide. It is the sole authority recognized by the International Olympic Committee and is responsible for conducting the sport at the Olympic Games. The Karate Association of India (KAI) represents India and is affiliated to WKF.
The WKF conducts a competition – The Karate1 – Youth League, which has been conceived to provide a focus on young karateka’s between the ages of 12 and 17, for their development and providing a measure of progress to be able to compete at the highest level of the sport. The most recent tournament was held at Umag, Croatia.
This tournament is significant because success in the 14-17 years categories, here leads to a ranking in WKF and qualification to the World Youth Olympic Games to be held at Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, later this year.
The Indian contingent was under the guidance of “Hanshi” Premjit Sen (8th Dan – Japan), who is currently the Joint Chairman and Selector of the Karate Association of India and President Karate Association of Bengal.
“Hanshi” Premjit Sen’s protégé – Amiyo Sundar Biswas of India has done the Nation and our State proud by being the first Indian to win a silver medal in his category – Under 14 Male Kata, at the World level!!
Amiyo’s success today is to a great extent attributable to the sustained efforts of his coach – “Hanshi” Premjit Sen, who has been nurturing talent at State, National and International levels since ages.
Kata is a combination of attack and defense techniques and is also known as shadow fighting. A lot of otherwise dangerous techniques are practiced through the medium of kata. This is also referred to as Traditional Forms and a lot of karate basics such as stances, punches, strikes, blocks, kicks, sweeps, jumps and throws are given emphasis upon, showing their application in various situations of attack and defense. Each bout between competitors is judged by 5 judges, with the winner progressing.
Amiyo’s event had over 58 participants from all over the World. On his way to the finals Amiyo had to face tough opponents from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and France over whom he secured 5-0 results, losing very narrowly (3-2) in the finals to his opponent from Turkey. He is currently India’s 4 times consecutive National Champion and also the Commonwealth Champion. Amiyo has been coming from Konnagar for coaching under the watchful eyes of “Hanshi” Premjit Sen, every morning, for the last five years. Konnagar is a city with a municipality in Hooghly District in the state of West Bengal, India.
Amiyo’s father- a worker in a biscuit factory, had never dreamt that he would be able to support his son so far and it was with the contributions of members of All India Seishinkai Shito-Ryu Karate-Do Federation that this dream opportunity could turn into reality, so much so that for the last month he was camped at the ‘Dojo’- (training arena) literally!
Pratyusha Mukherjee
Kolkata, India
