“Karate to me is not just a martial art and a philosophy – it is sense, mission and a part of my identity”

A few days before the World Championship of kyokushin karate in Varna, the World Champion in absolute category Zahari Damyanov gave interview for Webcafe.bg  about his journey to the top of the toughest martial art in the world and what are the required qualities to reach the victory.

Text: Borislav Orlinov

Sosai Masutatsu Ōyama was born in 1923 and is the founder of the most famous and wide spread Japanese karate in the world – kyokushin.

At the age of 9 Mas Oyama studied Chinese kenpo in Manchuria and in his adolescent years he was judo and boxing disciple.

All of this led him up to the training of Okinawa karate, which served as the fundament of his own style – Kyokushin or “The Absolute Power”. Mas Oyama died from lung cancer in April 1994, but gave the world the most powerful karate style.

Exactly 21 years and 7 months later a Bulgarian climbed to the very top of the kyokushin karate world. On November 22nd 2015 sensei Zahari Damyanov became the absolute world champion by winning the most prestigious competition in Japan – the World Championship without categories, which features the top 192 karateka in the World.

With this victory he became not only the first Bulgarian, but also the first European, to ever win the first place in this tournament.

3. Дисциплина

Recently the karateka from Varna became the coach of the National Karate Team at the Bulgarian Karate Kyokushin Federation and opened his own karate dojo by the name of “Nihonto”, where all training is absolutely free for both children and adults:

“My doors are open for anyone who wishes to connect to the magic of karate. It turned out that those people are not too few to mention. My goal is to give my contribution to the juvenile development and sports in the city of Varna.”

Sensei Damyanov stepped into the dojo for the first time at the age of 10 and 20 years later he has four European Championships in category over 90 kg (2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014) and another four championships from the American Open with no categories in New York (2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013), where he has also won a fighting spirit prize. He has also won the American Open with categories (2007).

2. Сила на характера

“Karate to me is not just a martial art and a philosophy – it is sense, mission and a part of my identity. That is why am particularly happy that acting as the coach I can give others the lessons I learned from karate. I am convinced that the karate is very useful mainly to educate children and adolescents – it is a good starting point in life.

One of the first things you learn is that nothing in life comes for free – you have to give in order to get, you have to respect your rivals, to be stubborn and meticulous, you have to use and put your energy into something constructive. The satisfaction you will get at the end is priceless.”

On December 3rd and 4th this year, sensei Zahari Damyanov will be one of the official representatives at the upcoming World Championship of kyokushin karate for junior male and female between 12 and 17 years old, which will be hosted at the Palace of Culture and Sport in Varna.

It is hosted by the Bulgarian Karate Kyokushin Federation and is one of the largest events in the calendar.

“I recently became the coach of the National Karate Team. Our first test was the European Championship held on the 25th and 26th of November in the Netherlands. The competition was crushing, but I was sure that our karateka will return to Bulgaria holding medals. So it was – 7 medals – 2 silver and 5 bronze” shared the world champion.

The greatest success, obviously, came in Japan at the World Championship without categories, but if you ask sensei Zahari Damyanov all achievements are equally important to him:

“Every title is dear to me and has its sentimental value to me. I know the price I paid for every one of them in terms of time, training, energy, perseverance and deprivation and therefore I struggle to split them into more or less important. The World Championship without categories is thetoughest and most prestigious tournament of kyokushin karate. This is why only an Olympic gold medal could be an equivalent”.

On his quest to the top the Bulgarian defeated three Russians, two Japanese a Brazilian and a Polack. At the final he faced the Frenchman Djema Belkhodja:

“I knew he was a very serious competitor because I have beaten him five times in previous meetings. However, I did not underestimate him for a second. To the contrary – I was concentrated to the maximum and the result was good.”

And after reaching the top of his professional career, the mission of the Bulgarian karateka has changed:

“To give my knowledge and my experience with the hope that one day one of my disciples will hold the trophy.”

In the gallery you could see the five pillars of a kyokushin karateka’s success: