Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 239

Karate
We arranged to meet in Madrid, at the offices of the World
Karate Federation. From the very beginning Antonio Espinós
was open and helpful. We’ve always got on well and he
knows that although there are clear differences in our
thinking, I do what I do from the heart and take it very
seriously.
I first met Antonio Espinós the day he was elected
president of the Spanish Karate Federation. I was a member
of the Federation’s General Assembly, the senior body that
would elect him. He didn’t really seem to be the favourite,
up against the incumbent president Celestino Fernández,
but he won the election. In 1988, I counted on Espinós’s
presence at the exhibition tournament that I organised in
Gua