Lithuanian shinkyokushinkai karate sportsmen will participate in the 9th World Karate Championship to be held in Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on October 13-14th.
This tournament which is held every four years, is widely looked upon as the Olympics for Karate. Norichika Tsukamoto, the champion of the 6th World Championship, and Kunihiro Suzuki, champion of the 8th World Championship, are scheduled to enter the tournament. The champion of the open-weight tournament has been of Japanese nationality until this day, but many predict this long trend to end with this year. To name a few, Valeri Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Donatas Imbras of Lithuania, Roman Nestelenko and Denis Gregorief of Russia, are looked upon as top prospects to reach the final.