West Virginia residents Robert Zingg and Tyson Kellerman won Gold Medals in the World Kempo Championships held in Bucharest, Romania October 3-5, 2003.

Robert Zingg, 48, who is the owner and chief instructor of Zingg's Karate Center of Charles Town and Tyson Kellerman, 17, a senior at Martinsburg Christian Academy, were members of the United States Kempo Team. The team competed in the international event, which was sponsored by the International Kempo Federation, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany.  The United States team consisted of 11 competitors and 1 coach, hailing from West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina.  Mr. Zingg teaches Karate, Kempo, Ju-jutsu, and Weapons at his school to adults and children living in the Eastern Panhandle.

Kempo is a Martial Art similar to Karate only much older.  Kempo fighters perform much like Karate fighters with kicking and punching, except that Kempo allows grappling, throws, takedowns, chokes, holds, joint locks and fighting on the ground.  A fighter wins by knockout, submission, or total points accumulated. The fighting is broken down into 3 categories, "Light-Contact", "Full-Contact", and "Knockdown".

"Knockdown" is a full-contact fighting style that does not use protective gloves or coverings for the hands or head.  It is understandably brutal and is practiced by a much smaller number of specially trained fighters. 

"Full-contact" fighting is what the name implies, there is full-force kicking and punching designed to knock your opponent out, with the fighters still wearing protective gloves and headgear.  

"Light-contact" is similar to what is practiced in the US, with light contact to the head, moderate contact to the body and the fighters wearing protective gloves and headgear. 

Kempo is practiced in almost every country in the world, with the World Kempo Championships being held every two years.  The International Kempo Federation, or IKF, is very active in eastern and western Europe, Africa and Asia.  This is the first time the United States has entered the competition.  The US team won a total of 3 Gold medals, 2 Silvers, and 16 Bronzes during the competition, enough to win 3rd place in overall medals won.  This was quite an accomplishment considering the US team only had 11 members.  The Romanian and Hungarian teams came away with 1st and 2nd respectively, but they had much larger teams.  The Romanians had 114 members on their team and the Hungarians had about 50 members. The Official Results of the Competing Nations is calculated using the Olympic Model. A Gold medal is considered 3 points , Silver medal is considered 2 points and Bronze medal is considered 1 point . For each nation participating to the World Kempo Championship 2003 we calculate the amount of points earned and then we divide the total points to the number of each nation's competitors.

The Olympic rules for calculating the official results of Nations, Overall Team Cup, gives equal chances to each country.  So, it is not important the number (quantity) of medals earned by each country, but it is important the balance between the number of points earned and the number of competitors (the quality of medals). In this way, a team composed of only 7 competitors has the same chances to win as a team composed of 100 competitors. In the Competition of Nations, Overall Team Cup, only teams with a minimum 7-10 competitors were considered. 

Nation results:

1-st Place : Romania

Kempo Sport (LC,FC,KD) Gold medals: 47 (47*3 points=141 points) -Kempo Sport (LC,FC,KD) Silver medals: 40 (40*2 points=80 points) -Kempo Sport (LC,FC,KD) Bronze medals: 45 (45*1 point=45 points) -Kata Gold medals: 7 (7*3 points=21 points) -Kata Silver medals: 6 (6*2 points=12 points) -Kata Bronze medals: 5 (5*1 point=5 points) -Weapon kata Gold medals: 0 (0 points) -Weapon kata Silver medals: 0 (0 points) -Weapon kata Bronze medals 0 (0 points) -Self defence Gold medals: 2 (2*3 points=6 points) -Self defence Silver medals: 4 (4*2 points=8 points) -Self defence Bronze medals: 0 (0 points) -Total points : 318 points -Numbers of competitors : 114 -Final Result : 318 points / 114 competitors = 2.79 points/competitor

2-nd Place : Hungary -Final Result : 2.30 points/competitor

3-rd Place : U.S.A. -Final Result : 2.25 points/competitor

4-th Place : Netherland -Final Result : 1.45 points/competitor

5-th Place : Belgium -Final Result : 0.78 points/competitor

6-th Place : France -Final Result : 0.43 points/competitor

7-th Place : Germany (5 competitors) -Final Result : 1.40 points/competitor 

West Virginia representatives Robert Zingg, who is the owner and chief instructor of Zingg's Karate Center of Charles Town, and Tyson Kellerman, who is one of Zingg's top students, did very well in the competition.  On the first day of the tournament Zingg and Kellerman won the first US Gold Medal with a 1st place win in the 2-person Self-Defense competition.  They performed a complicated and dangerous 2-man weapon fighting routine, using real martial arts weapons.  Their performance outshined the teams from Romania, Hungary, Germany, Morocco, Switzerland, Belgium, France, and The Netherlands.  Tyson then took home a Bronze Medal in his Weapons Forms division while Zingg garnered a Bronze in the Senior Men's Forms division.

The next day, in the fighting divisions, Tyson won the Gold Medal in the 16 & 17 year olds Full-Contact Fighting category after a series of extremely tough matches against some of the best Kempo fighters his age in the world.  The matches were full of international rivalries, intrigue, and national pride as the fighters battled each other for victory, honor, and respect.   The win gave Tyson the right to the title of World Champion - Full-Contact.  Then, not to rest on his laurels, Tyson competed in the brutal Knockdown fighting division for 16 & 17 year olds where he won the Bronze Medal after several hard-fought matches. Tyson had this to say about his victories "The competition here is a lot tougher than I expected. The fighters from Romania and Hungary are very good.  I'm pretty sore from all of the fighting but I was real proud to represent the United States, West Virginia and my Karate School in international competition.  I can't wait til we go to the Pan-American Kempo Championship Tournament in 2004, and then to the next World Kempo Championships in 2005 in Switzerland"

Ray Ferrell, the US coach and Pan-American Representative for the IKF, from Charlotte, NC said "This was our first effort at international competition for the US Kempo Team.  We are looking toward to putting together a much larger team for the 2004 and 2005 season.  Many of our members had not competed on that level before and it was a real eye opener.  We did a great job with the medals that we won, only having 11 members, but it fired us up to make a better showing next time and to let the world know that the United States is a powerhouse in Kempo competition."

Mr. Zingg had this to say about Tyson, "Tyson worked his butt off for this tournament and it paid off.  I'm sure there were some things he wished he could have done better, but I'm very proud of him. Two Gold medals and two Bronze medals is nothing to sneeze at.  Next time, though, he will be competing in the full adult division. He will have turned 18 and the competition will be even tougher, but I know he is up for it." 

So the team trains on.  Blood, sweat, and tears.  No guts no glory.  They have heard them all and they keep training.  If you would like more information about the US Kempo Team you may contact Robert Zingg at rzingg@email.com  or visit the US Kempo Team's Official webpage:   www.uskempoteam.org

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