press, and the competition schedule place the medals on 10–13 September. Poster artwork has shown 5–13; the official start in the bulletin table is 6 September. Five is poster art. Six opens the week. Ten opens the medals.
By 9 September the general programme has already moved through arrivals, the referee–coach track, weigh-in and draws. Official accreditation was set for Tuesday 8 September, 10:00–16:00, at the Hotel Holiday Inn Alger. Registration opened 6 June and closed 25 August. What remains is the tatami.
Four tatami at La Coupole
The competition venue is the Office du Complexe Olympique Alger — the Hall of the Olympic Complex Mohamed Boudiaf — La Coupole, Algiers, in bulletin and host language. Four tatami. Video review is mandatory on the first and last competition days; video remains available all four days for tatami managers and the appeal jury. The continental trail on the WKF page runs Abuja 2025 → Casablanca 2023 → Durban 2022 → Cairo 2021 → Tangier 2020 → Gaborone 2019. Algiers is next; the karategi gather under the Coupole.
Thursday seniors, then the age bands
The bulletin’s schedule is the spine — for framing only, not for invented results. Thursday 10 September opens with senior individual kata and kumite, women and men — eliminations, repechage and finals, 09:00–21:00. Friday 11 September turns to Cadet and Junior kata (individual and team) and Cadet and Junior individual kumite. Saturday 12 September carries U21 individual kata and kumite through elim and repechage, Para Karate, the Opening Ceremony, and the U21 finals. Sunday 13 September closes with senior team kata and team kumite, women and men, 09:00–17:00.
Entry rules stay tight: one individual athlete per category; one team per activity; individually, one category, with a possible higher-category team place if age matches. Seniors (18+) bring individual kata, team kata from 16+, five men’s kumite weight categories (−60, −67, −75, −84, +84) and five women’s (−50, −55, −61, −68, +68), plus team kumite. U21 (18–21) mirrors individual kata and those same five kumite weight categories; the bulletin lists no U21 team events. Juniors (16–17) and Cadets (14–15) keep their own kumite weight categories, with team kata shared across the 14–17 band; Cadet women’s kumite carries four weight categories, not five. Para Karate is on Saturday; finer classification splits are not verified here.
U21 on the programme, ceremony on Saturday
UFAK newly validated the U21 category for this championship — the reason the competitive spine stretches to four days. Cadets, Juniors and Seniors were the old frame; U21 now sits with its own individual kata and the senior kumite weight categories. The Opening Ceremony on Saturday 12 September is built around the U21 finals and Para Karate — UFAK’s pairing, not a guess. Leadership colour stays light: UFAK President Souleymane Gaye thanks Algerian authorities and FAK President Reda BENKADDOUR (the PDF also prints BENKADOUR once) and pays tribute to WKF President Antonio Espinós. Bulletin No. 2 already carried the full welcomes; the kickoff needs only the hinge.
Tunisia’s 37
National colour, not a forecast. News Tunisia / Tunisie Numérique, dated 8 September 2026, reports a Tunisian national team of 37 athletes for the African Championships in Algeria — seniors plus under-21, under-19 and under-17 (press wording that maps carefully onto UFAK’s U21 / Junior / Cadet bands) in kumite and kata, with competition 10–13 September. The same piece breaks out under-19: eight athletes (four boys, four girls) and under-17: seven karatekas (two girls, five boys). Kata is listed as one athlete in each of senior, under-17, under-19 and under-21. Tunisia also contests individual events across the disciplines named, plus senior team kumite for men and women. The article does not name athletes, does not complete the arithmetic of the remaining places in the 37, and does not claim expected medals. Neither does this magazine.
Botswana’s three-medal hunt
Further south, Mmegi reports that the Botswana Karate Association (BOKA) has set a target of three medals at the 2026 UFAK Cadet, Junior and Senior Championships. The same despatch places the event as having “kicked off on Sunday (September 6) in Algiers … until September 13” — the longer week, not a premature medal claim. BOKA president Shihan Mpho Bakwadi, speaking to Sport Monitor, said the target “was influenced by the number of athletes who will represent the country at the continental championships.” The trip is “fully funded by Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC).” At the previous UFAK edition, “Team Botswana won one medal out of the three athletes that were assigned.” The piece does not name that prior host year, does not list the current squad by category, and does not award any Algiers 2026 medal. The three-medal hunt is an ambition on the record. The tatami will answer it later.
Senior teams and the Hangzhou note
One pathway sits in the bulletin without embroidery. The UFAK Senior Championships 2026 serve as official qualification for the Karate World Cup – National Team Championships 2026 in Hangzhou, China. Qualifying teams, per the bulletin: Gold Medal Team; Silver Medal Team; Bronze Medal Team defeated by the Gold Medal Team. That is a senior-team note — not an individual World Cup claim, and not a prediction of who those teams will be when Sunday’s team kata and team kumite close the window.
Medals open tomorrow
So the Algiers kickoff stands where the sources allow. Event week 6–13 September; competition and medals 10–13; four tatami at La Coupole; seniors individual on Thursday; Cadets and Juniors on Friday; Opening Ceremony, U21 finals and Para Karate on Saturday; senior teams on Sunday. Tunisia’s 37. Botswana’s three-medal target, BNSC-funded. U21 newly on the programme. Hangzhou’s senior-team pathway in the fine print. For programme depth, readers already have karate.news’s Bulletin No. 2 feature — this piece does not replace it. No Day 1 scores. No invented medalists. The medal window opens on 10 September 2026 under #KarateArgel2026.
Sources
- WKF — 2026 UFAK Championships Argel
- WKF — 2026 African Karate Championships Bulletin PDF
- karate.news — Algiers 2026: Africa’s karate championships, Bulletin No. 2
- UFAK — Algiers to host the 2026 African Karate Championships (direct fetch may 500; host/schedule excerpts via search index)
- News Tunisia / Tunisie Numérique — 37 athletes to represent Tunisia
- Mmegi — BOKA on a three UFAK medal hunt
- Hero: editorial illustration to be generated separately (not produced in this task)
On Wednesday 9 September 2026, Africa’s continental karate week in Algiers sits one night short of its competitive heart. The event and accreditation window opened on Sunday 6 September; the competition and medal window opens tomorrow — Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September — at the Office du Complexe Olympique Alger, the hall popularly named the Olympic Complex Mohamed Boudiaf — La Coupole. This is not Bulletin No. 2 rewritten. That working paper already locked venue, hotel, categories and the video-review rule. This piece is the medal-window eve: the week already under way, four tatami about to carry eliminations and finals, and the national colour on the public record — without inventing a bout score, podium or medal table for Algiers 2026.
From accreditation week to medals
The Algerian Karate Federation — FAK, also styled AKF — organises the championships under the aegis of the Algerian Ministry of Sports, under UFAK (Union of African Karate Federations) and WKF rules. Eligibility is limited to UFAK-affiliated national federations. WKF styles the meeting 2026 UFAK Championships Argel; the bulletin speaks of the African Karate Championships 2026. The public tag is #KarateArgel2026.
Two clocks still matter. Bulletin No. 2 and UFAK place the championships from 6 to 13 September. WKF’s event page and calendar, Tunisia’s
