The future stars of Karate in Europe will gather this week in Larnaca (Cyprus) at the 2023 EKF Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships.
Over 1100 young athletes from 48 countries will fight for gold in Larnaca. It will be the perfect opportunity to follow the progress of the up-and-coming karatekas in the continent, as well as evaluating the strength of the grassroots programmes of the powerhouse nations of the sport in Europe.
The event is scheduled to start on Friday, February 3 at 9:00 local time (GMT +2). All the Kata and Team Kata categories, as well as the eliminations in Cadet divisions, will take the stage on Friday. The spotlight on Saturday will be taken by the eliminations of Junior and U21 categories, while all the medal bouts are slated for Sunday.
It is the third time that Cyprus host an underage continental championship. The 2001 edition of the event was held in Nicosa while the 2016 championships took place in Limassol. The city of Limassol has also welcomed Karate 1-Youth League events in 2022, 2021, and 2019.
The last edition of the EKF Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships was held in Prague (Czech Republic) in June 2022. Spain topped the medal table of the event with 14 medals, including six golds. Turkiye and Ukraine also registered deserving performances with 12 and 5 medals respectively.