W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon)

W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon)
The poster for W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon)
Promotion	W.A.K.O.
Date	24 October (Start) 30 October 2006 (End)
City	Lisbon, Portugal
Event chronology
W.A.K.O. World Championships 2005 (Szeged) W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon) W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Skopje)

W.A.K.O. European Championships 2006 (Lisbon) were the joint eighteenth European kickboxing championships held by the W.A.K.O. organization (the other event would be held the next month in Skopje, Macedonia) and the second to be held in Portugal and the city of Lisbon. The event was open to amateur men and women from across Europe although a number of professional fighters such as Luis Reis would take part. All in all, it was the largest ever European championships with around 560 athletes from 31 countries taking part. One of the reasons for the higher numbers being that W.A.K.O. had merged had recently merged with the I.K.A.S. and took on many of the I.K.A.S. organization's fighters. Another reason was that some countries were allowed multiple competitors per weight division in the Full-Contact and Semi-Contact categories.^[1]

There were four styles on offer in Lisbon; Full-Contact, Semi-Contact, Musical Forms and Aero-Kickboxing. By the end of the championships Russia was once again the strongest nation across all styles, with Italy in second and Hungary in third. The event was held over seven days in Lisbon, Portugal, starting on Tuesday, 24 October and finishing on Monday, 30 October.^[2]