Karate official replies

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 23

Karate official replies

One of the chief officials involved in the running of the recent national karate championships in Wellington has reacted angrily to comments made by a member of the Christchurch-based club, Oki-nawa-Te.

The tournament, run under the auspices of the Martial Arts Council, attracted strong criticism from an Okinawa-Te brown belt competitor, Wayne Petersen, on his return to Christchurch. Petersen said that the tournment was poorly run and alleged “bias” in judging and in the selection of a New Zealand team’ to compete against Australia.

However, Shihan Kansho KRupe, chief referee for urnament, said that he found Petersen’s comments, published in “The Press” on November 1, “totally unacceptable.”

Mr Rupe said that Petersen, as a competitor, "should know his place’’ and wait until he had the necessary experience, knowledge and qualifications to speak out. The claim by Petersen that one judge had gone to sleep during a fight was not true, Mr Rupe said. He also denied that there were long delays between fights. "There were three rings going all the time.” Mr Rupe said there was “no way" there was any bias in the selection of the New Zealand team, made by a panel of 10 karate instructors from different areas. “We had to pick the best and go on performance,” said Mr Rupe, one of the selectors. He said that the team included 10 karate exponents from outside the Wellington area.

Mr . Rupe said that he had

been out of the room when he was selected as national coach of the team which will go to Australia next month for a two-test series.

The selectors were all chief instructors with 18 to 20 years experience in judging, refereeing and competing at tournaments up to international level.

Petersen had complained that a number of competitors showed a lack of “etiquette.” According to Mr Rupe, the only competitor who showed no etiquette was Petersen himself. l7 He could not take his loss and walked off in bad taste. A competitor must lose gracefully.” Petersen, claiming bias, said that during one fight there were four judges from one club in the corners, but Mr Rupe rejected this. “They

might all have had the same gis (uniforms), but that doesn’t make them from the same style.” Mr Rupe said that it was true that, contrary to regulations, one competitor had been wearing a necklace which broke during a fight. “That was one incident We overlooked one competitor in more than 200 taking part in the tournament” He added that, outside Oki-nawa-Te, to his knowledge or that of the tournament organiser, Mr Vera Winitana, there had been no compliants about the running of the national event.

Mr Rupe, is the founder of the Gosuku Kai organisation, which is a branch of the International Karate Association. The New Zealand branch of the style is based in Christchurch.