NOTE: Organisation of Olympic kata competition differs from this Article 3 and is subject to the organisational procedure described in ATTACHMENT 15.

1. Kata competition takes the form of team and individual bouts. Team matches consist of competition between three-person teams. Each team is exclusively male, or exclusively female. The Individual Kata competition consists of individual performance in separate male and female divisions.

2. For WKF World and Continental Championships, the four medal winners (gold, silver and two bronze) of the previous event are seeded. For Karate 1- Premier League, the eight top ranked Competitors in the WKF World Ranking as per the day before the competition are seeded. The right to seeding does not downflow to lower places in the absence of Competitors eligible for seeding.

3. The number of Competitors will determine the number of groups to facilitate the elimination rounds.

4. The elimination system used for kata is dividing the Competitors (individuals or teams) in equal number groups of eight (with the exceptions explained for less than 11 or more than 96), divided in two pools, one wearing red belts (AKA) and the other blue belts (AO). For each round the number of Competitors per group is reduced to 4 — passing on to the next round — until only two groups of Competitors (individual or teams) remains, whereupon the Competitors with the highest score in each of the two respective groups are pitted against each other competing for 1st place (the loser taking 2nd place) and the Competitors having the second highest score in each of the two groups are pitted against the third highest score in the other group to compete for the two 3 rd places (bronze finals).

• In the event that there are 3 or less Competitors a single kata is performed to determine 1st through 3rd place. (In such cases either red or blue belts may be assigned to all the Competitors.)
• With 4 competitors two groups of two are formed for the first round and the two winners meet to compete for 1st while the two losers are placed 3rd. • With 5-10 competitors two groups and the three highest scoring of each group go on to medal matches. The group will then follow the normal procedure that the highest scoring Competitor for each group will compete for 1st and 2nd place — and number 2 will meet number 3 from the other group and vice versa – unless there is only 5 Competitors total – in which case the number 2 competitor in the group of three (the larger group) will win his/her 3rd place on bye (walkover).
• If the number of competitors is 11-24, two groups are formed. After the first kata the 4 top competitors form two groups of four after which the second kata will determine the ranking for the 6 competitors (3 from each group) that will proceed to compete in the third round for the medals in the normal manner.
• If the number of competitors is 25-48, four groups are formed. After the first Kata the top 4 competitors from each group will pass to the second round. In the second round, 16 contestants are divided in 2 groups in 2 Tatamis (8 contestants for each group) and the second Kata will be performed. After the second round the 4 best competitors for each group (8 in total) will pass to the third round. In the third round, these 8 contestants are divided into 2 groups (4 contestants for each group) and perform the third Kata. After the third round the 3 best competitors of each group will pass to the medal bouts, performing the fourth Kata.

5. The basic number of Competitors per group is 8 – but where the number of Competitors exceeds 64, but is under 97, the number of Competitors exceeding 64 are distributed over the 8 groups to a maximum of 12 per group.

6. Should the number of Competitors be 97 or more the number of groups are doubled to 16 — giving a reduced number of Competitors per group — but still selecting the first four of each group leaving 8 groups of 8 Competitors (a total of 64 Competitors) for the next round.

7. The same panel of Judges must be deployed for all Competitors in a group for any single round.

8. There will be no repechage applied unless otherwise specifically determined for a competition.

9. Individual Competitors or teams that do not present themselves when called will be disqualified (KIKEN) from that category. Disqualification by KIKEN means that the Competitors are disqualified from that category, although it does not affect participation in another category.

10. In the bouts for medals of Team Kata Competition, the Teams will perform their chosen Kata in the usual way. They will then perform a demonstration of the meaning of the Kata (BUNKAI). The total time allowed for the KATA & BUNKAI demonstration combined, is 5 minutes. The official timekeeper will start the countdown clock as the team members perform the bow upon starting the kata and will stop the clock at the final bow after the BUNKAI performance. A team which does not perform the bow at the beginning and completion of the performance, or which exceeds the fiveminute period allowed will be disqualified. The use of traditional weapons, ancillary equipment or additional apparel is not allowed.