AFTER successfully staging a mass training session last month in Dumaguete City, the newly formed Visayas Karate-do Union (VKU) will be holding its first-ever Karatedo Championships dubbed as the “VKU Karatedo Championships” slated May 26-27 in two separate venues in Cebu.
The tournament is expected to draw around a hundred karatekas from various karatedo clubs in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Competition on the first day of the contest will be held at the Insular Square in Mandaue City, while on the second day matches will be held at Robinsons Galleria Cebu.
On the first day, there will be a kata seminar featuring three respected karatedo instructors led by Shihan Dennis Aquino, a fifth dan Godan of the World Shotokan Karatedo Federation (WSKF), who is also the chief instructor of the Shitokai Philippines. Aquino will be joined by Shihan Vic Luna, who is also a fifth dan Godan of the Japan Karatedo Association (JKA) and a former national team kata coach and current chief instructor of JKA Philippines, and Kyoshi Marcelo Navarroza, a sixth dan and former instructor of the PNPA and current chief instructor of the Kyudokan Shorinyu.
Also to be held on the first day will be the elimination round of the tournament.
The championship rounds will be held in the second day.
Cebu’s very own Hayashi-ha Shitoryukai composed of its Compostela and Cebu chapters will compete in the two-day tournament. They will go up against AAK Davao, Shorin Bukidnon, Hayashi-ha Dumaguete, JKA Cebu, PKL Kabangkalan, JKA Mandaue, DepEd Karatedo. JKA Lapu-Lapu City, University of Cebu (UC) Karatedo Team, COSCA, WSKU Dumaguete, Cebu Technological University (CTU) Karatedo Team, JKAB Camotes, Iloilo Shidokan, Kyudokan Cebu and Shitokai Philippines.