WKF President, Mr Antonio Espinós, and EKF General Secretary, Mr Stjepan Celan, recently made a visit to Baku (Azerbaijan) in order to see progress made concerning the 1st European Games that will take place next month of June 2015.

WKF President, Mr Antonio Espinós, and EKF General Secretary, Mr Stjepan Celan, recently made a visit to Baku (Azerbaijan) in order to see progress made concerning the 1st European Games that will take place next month of June 2015.

On the first day of the visit, 18th November, Mr Espinós and Mr Celan made a guided visit to Crystal Hall, the venue for Karate competitions during the Games.

On the following day, 19th November, meetings with the 2015 Baku European Games Organising Committee (BEGOC) took place with the attendance of Mr Spyros Capralos, Chairman of the EOC Coordination Commission, and Pierce O’Callaghan, Baku 2015 Sport Director, as well as the President and 1st Vice-president of the National Karate Federation of Azerbaijan, Mr Yashar Bashirov and Mr Ilham Gasimzade respectively. Mr Dmitriy Chigenev, Sport Competition Manager for Karate, made an extensive presentation on the ongoing developments for next year’s event, which was continued by very interesting and fruitful conversations at the meeting, also with the participation of Mr Makis Asimakopoulos, EOC Sports Consultant, and Mr Mark Mateer, BEGOC Sport Cluster Competition Manager.

It is important to highlight that there will be a test event in April 2015 in Crystal Hall, that will serve as an excellent opportunity to prepare most efficiently the European Games only 2 months later.