September 25/26, 2021 – Karate Canada’s Senior Team Trials Calgary, Alberta
Dear Senior and U21 National Team Roster athletes,
We hope this email finds you well. Please note the important information below:
1- 2021-2022 SENIOR NATIONAL TEAM CRITERIA:
For your information, please click on the link below for access to the new Senior National Team Criteria (for both kata and kumite mainstream athletes) for the 2021-2022 season (starting at the conclusion of the upcoming 2021 Senior National Team Trials, scheduled to take place in Calgary (AB) on September 25-26 – first information bulletin set for release next week):
For the most part, these new Criteria remain consistent with Criteria of the last couple of years. The most significant changes and some important elements to consider are as follows:
-The new (2021-2022) season will stretch, for the Senior National Team Roster, from the conclusion of the 2021 Senior National Team Trials (ending on September 26, 2021) to the start of the 2022 National Championships (joint Junior & Senior event, set to start on July 1st, 2022);
– As reflected in Section 6, all medallists from the 2021 Sr Team Trials will now automatically be named onto the Roster (selections for anyone not holding at least a National A status was previously subject to discretionary Coach choices, although in practice we did in fact invite all Senior medallists onto the Roster, in the last few years). Prioritization for selection to specific event teams has been further clarified (in section 7), with regards to relative ranking point totals of respective athletes holding identical status;
– The list of targeted (and KC ranking point-earning) events (which does not includes points for results at the 2021 Senior Pan American Championships – see notes below) has been updated; please note that athletes may now earn KC ranking points for matches won (below a certain placement) at the 2021 Sr World and 2022 Sr Pan American Championships, and that points at these events are subjected to the ’Strength of Field’ criterion (section 5.2);
-Team selection dates for the 2021 Sr Pan American and 2021 Sr World Championships is set for immediately after the conclusion of the September 2021 Senior National Team Trials (invited athletes will be required to confirm participation promptly after conclusion of those Senior National Team Trials);
– Given ongoing COVID-related issues in South America and possible health risks associated with participation in the 2021 Sr Pan American Championships, participation in that event will be optional and Karate Canada will, exceptionally, not award any ranking points for performance at that event. Selection for the 2021 Sr World Championships team will be based on athlete point rankings and status immediately after the conclusion of the September 2021 Senior National Team Trials event (the current Senior rankings are available on our website);
– The rules for automatic invitations to Senior national competitions (Appendix A) reflect the changes announced back in December 2020 (for instance, all age-eligible medallists from the previous National Championships are now automatically invited, instead of only the gold and silver medalists). These automatic invitation rules will apply to the 2021 Senior National Team Trials event.
We highly recommend that you take the time to read through this important document and familiarize yourselves with its contents, as is the case each year.
Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our High Performance Director Mr. Kraig Devlin, at: kraig.devlin@karatecanada.org.
2- INFO MEETING:
Karate Canada’s High Performance Director Mr. Kraig Devlin would like to invite you (as well as you club / dojo coaches and / or Provincial / Territorial Team Coaches) to attend an optional virtual information meeting, during which he will go over the broad lines of these new Criteria and calendar for the coming season, and answer related questions. This 75-minute meeting is tentatively set to start at 12:00 PM EDT on Wednesday July 28th, 2021 (a recording or notes from the meeting should be available for those unavailable to attend live).
If you’d like to attend this meeting, please confirm this by filling out the Doodle poll found at the link below, and Karate Canada will share the meeting link and information with you very soon:
https://doodle.com/poll/k7tpsrb9fh8kgq5r?utm_source=poll&utm_medium=link
3- 2021 SENIOR NATIONAL TEAM TRIALS
As mentioned above, a first Information Bulletin for this event will be released very soon. ın the mean time, here are some elements of preliminary information:
Dates: September 25-26, 2021
Location: Calgary (AB)
Divisions: The usual WKF Senior World Championship divisions (5 male and 5 female individual kumite divisions, 1 male & 1 female individual kata divisions, 1 male & 1 female Team Kata divisions, all new Para-karate divisions).
Planned Format:
– WKF elimination system for kata, plus an additional match between repechage winners to determine 3rd and 4th places
– True double elimination format in kumite (as in recent years)
Who can participate (athletes)?
a) age eligibility: athletes will need tho be of age (at least 16 for kata and 18 for kumite) by the start date of the last official international Senior competition (2022 Sr Pan Ams) of the next season, which will be May 26th 2022.
b) number of athletes per division and Provincial / Territorial Team: in addition to Automatic Invitations (list coming soon), every member Provincial / Territorial Association will be allowed to register up to 3 athletes per individual kumite division and 4 athletes per individual kata division (no Wildcards for this event, but Provincial / Territorial Associations will have full discretion over their selection of athletes to fill available spots).
c) Citizenship status: As usual, athletes must be able to provide proof of Canadian citizenship or, at least, permanent resident status by the time of accreditation in order to be eligible for participation.
Pre-Registration Deadline (on SportData): September 15, through your Provincial / Territorial Association.
Safety: Please note: Some COVID-19 risk mitigation measures will be implemented (to be announced soon).
We hope this helps for now.
Thank you.
Best regards,