Next week, the national teams take centre stage. From 20 to 22 November, Hangzhou hosts the 2026 Karate World Cup, the World Team Championships that the World Karate Federation stages to crown the best nations in Male and Female Team Kata and Team Kumite. It is only the second edition of the format, two years after a first chapter in Pamplona that set the bar high, and the WKF has now published the practical details every fan needs: who is coming, how the tournament works and, for anyone watching from Europe or the Americas, at what unlikely hour the medals will be decided.

Eighty teams, forty-two countries

According to the WKF, Hangzhou will gather 80 national teams from 42 countries and all five continents, with nearly 400 athletes on the tatami across three days of competition. Four delegations enter the maximum of four full teams, one in each category: Algeria, Italy, Japan and the host nation, China. The rest of the field has already been sorted into pools by the draw, whose composition we analysed in detail in our look at the Hangzhou groups.

The venue is the Sports Centre Gymnasium in Linping District, Hangzhou, in Zhejiang Province. The choice is hardly a surprise. The city has become a genuine karate hub in China, having hosted the 2022 Asian Games, where karate was a standout discipline, the 2024 AKF Senior Championships and a Karate One Premier League in 2025. China’s wider push is visible elsewhere too, with Premier League stops in Shanghai in 2019 and Leshan in 2026.

How the competition works

The format rewards consistency before it rewards nerve. In each category, teams are spread across four pools of five, and every team meets every other in a round robin. Only the top two of each pool reach the quarter-finals, after which the bracket narrows to semi-finals and a final. One detail matters for anyone following a team closely: there is a single bronze medal per category, contested between the two losing semi-finalists.

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The rhythm of the three days follows the official competition programme. Friday belongs to the female team kata and the male team kumite, from the pools to the quarter-finals. Saturday does the same for the male team kata and the female team kumite, before all four semi-finals are packed into a late-afternoon session in Hangzhou. Sunday is reserved for bronze-medal bouts and finals, split into two blocks either side of a lunch break.

The schedule in China, Paris and New York time

Hangzhou runs on China Standard Time (UTC+8). Paris, like Berlin, Madrid and Rome, is on Central European Time (UTC+1), seven hours behind, while New York, back on Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5) since 1 November, sits thirteen hours behind Hangzhou, which pushes several sessions back to the previous calendar day on the American east coast.

Session China Paris New York
Opening Ceremony Fri 20, 08:30 Fri 20, 01:30 Thu 19, 19:30
Pools: female team kata, male team kumite Fri 20, 09:00–19:00 Fri 20, 02:00–12:00 Thu 19 20:00 – Fri 20 06:00
Quarter-finals: female team kata, male team kumite Fri 20, 19:00–20:00 Fri 20, 12:00–13:00 Fri 20, 06:00–07:00
Pools: male team kata, female team kumite Sat 21, 09:00–15:30 Sat 21, 02:00–08:30 Fri 20 20:00 – Sat 21 02:30
Quarter-finals: male team kata, female team kumite Sat 21, 15:30–16:10 Sat 21, 08:30–09:10 Sat 21, 02:30–03:10
Semi-finals, all four categories Sat 21, 16:30–18:10 Sat 21, 09:30–11:10 Sat 21, 03:30–05:10
Male team kata: bronze, then final Sun 22, 11:00–11:30 Sun 22, 04:00–04:30 Sat 21, 22:00–22:30
Female team kumite: bronze, then final Sun 22, 11:45–12:45 Sun 22, 04:45–05:45 Sat 21, 22:45–23:45
Female team kata: bronze, then final Sun 22, 15:00–15:30 Sun 22, 08:00–08:30 Sun 22, 02:00–02:30
Male team kumite: bronze, then final Sun 22, 15:45–17:45 Sun 22, 08:45–10:45 Sun 22, 02:45–04:45
Closing Ceremony Sun 22, 18:00 Sun 22, 11:00 Sun 22, 05:00

The arithmetic is kind to Europe on Saturday and harsher on Sunday. The semi-finals fall in the Paris morning, between 09:30 and 11:10, whereas the first two titles, in male team kata and female team kumite, are decided before dawn in Europe and on Saturday evening in New York, with finals at 22:15 and 23:15 local time there. The second block suits European breakfast tables, with the female team kata final at 08:15 and the male team kumite final at 09:45 in Paris, but it lands in the middle of the night in New York. Medal ceremonies follow each final.

How to watch

The WKF states that the whole competition, from the pools to the finals, will be broadcast live on its YouTube channel. The eliminations, quarter-finals and semi-finals will be free to watch. The bronze-medal bouts and finals will be exclusive to members of the federation’s “Karate Fan” community on YouTube, and will also be offered to a range of TV networks and platforms around the world, which the WKF lists on its website.

The teams to follow

The reference point remains Pamplona 2024, where more than 380 athletes from 43 countries took part. Japan dominated that first edition, collecting four medals, three of them gold, in female team kata, female team kumite and male team kata, plus bronze in male team kumite. That record makes the Japanese the obvious benchmark in Hangzhou, a status we explored in our preview of Japan’s triple title defence.

The one title that escaped Japan went to Egypt, winners of the male team kumite ahead of Iran, and the Egyptians return to Hangzhou as defending champions in the event that closes the weekend, as we detailed in our piece on Egypt’s male team kumite. The rest of the 2024 podiums offer a useful map of contenders: Portugal took silver in female team kata, the United States in female team kumite, Türkiye in male team kata, and Spain finished with three bronze medals. Add four-category entries from Algeria and Italy, and a host nation fielding a full squad in front of its own public, and Hangzhou has every ingredient for a weekend worth setting an alarm for.

Sources

Photo: wkf.net

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