From 12th till 18th April 2017 lots of traditional karate-do practitioners met in the heart of Siberia: the first international traditional karate-do tournament “KUMITE EVOLUTION” was held in the city of Irkutsk. The event was organized by Pyotr Neupokoev, the All-Russian Traditional Karate-do Federation Vice-President and leader of traditional karate-do in this part of Russia. The technical seminar conducted by sensei W. Kwiecinski gathered more than 180 athletes mostly from the region of Irkutsk. During the judges course new types of training kumite developed specially for children were presented by the President of All-RTKF Pavel Chernousov. It’s not by coincidence that the event had an educational flavor.

The city of Irkutsk is a base for one of the most ambitious educational projects of the Traditional Karate-Do Institute. A special program “traditional karate-do instructor” had been introduced at the Irkutsk State University allowing the students to become officially recognized specialists. W. Kwiecinski accompanied by a delegation of the Traditional Karate-Do Federation of Poland held meetings with the Director of Pedagogical Institute of the State University Prof. Alexander V. Semirov and the Minister of Education of the Region of Irkutsk Valentina V. Peregudova ending with positive and impressive results. The tournament itself gathered more than 300 athletes of all ages from Russia and a team of Poland. The spectators were pleased to see a very high level of performance. After the tournament a Dan examination was held and also a visit to Lake Baikal, “the Pearl of Siberia”, the largest freshwater and the world’s oldest lake. We hope that this real traditional karate-do festival would become a beginning of a good tradition and would attract more and more international attention.