Organisers of International Karate tournament make “formal complaint” against Harlow Leisurezone
News / Sat 31st Jan 2026 at 03:43pm
THE organisers of an international Karate competition held at the Harlow Leisurezone have made a formal complaint at the way they were treated by the sports venue.
The Harlow Open International Karate Championship was held on Sunday January 25th at the Leisurezone.
It attracted over 500 competitors from across the world and has a global reputation.
They welcomed 70 clubs, with 1,058 entries and 574 competitors, representing England, Romania, Scotland, Nepal, India, Netherlands, Denmark, Pakistan, Algeria and Wales.
There were also international referees from Romania, Malta, Slovakia and Hungary working alongside our officials from England.
It is a sporting event that had the potential to put Harlow in the shop window.
However, it now looks like the organisers may well be looking for an alternative venue and have put in a formal complaint.
A spokesperson for Elite Karate Events put the following statement on their Facebook page.
He said: “We wish to mention that during the event, we experienced significant pressure from the leisure centre management, including repeated demands to finish early before our finishing time, lights being switched off twice without warning, and announcements instructing people to leave before the competition had concluded.
“This added unnecessary tension, and a formal complaint has been submitted regarding this matter”.
We later spoke to Elite Karate Events who confirmed the statement above and also pointed out that the event brings a lot of revenue to Harlow. A lot of competitors stayed over night in local hotels, used local restaurants and cafes as well as town centre shops.
They informed us that they had written to the Harlow Leisurezone but had not received any reply.
Your Harlow has also contacted Harlow Leisurezone in order for them to give their side of the story but to this date has not had any reply.
Ted
2026-02-01 09:34:43
The leisure zone management should be reprimanded for their jobs worth attitude, of finishing work on time . I have on many occasions had to work passed my time has as many others.
David Forman
2026-02-01 10:48:15
Elite Karate Events should give Harlow Leisurezone the Tegatana-ganmen-uchi (the chop). There is nothing like losing money to focus the minds of jobs worth management.
Adam
2026-02-01 12:15:16
Typical council worker mentality - do not worry your council tax is going up to cover their gold plated pensions.
TonyB
2026-02-01 15:32:52
Adam: Harlow Leisurezone is a company owned, not council owned or council workers. As to Harlow Leisurezone actions, senior management need to be reprimanded. Renting space for money is a bonus for Harlow Leisurezone, but it is a departure from their normal tasks, and management needs to address this with all weekend staff. Then look back at the preparations for such an event. Talk to whoever renting the space and find out their requirements and evaluate all possible problems, (like over runs) then make preparations for when things go wrong, as they invariably do. Making sure middle management and staffing for weekend work is up to the challenge, and the overtime payments. Just a footnote:Harlow Sportcentre used to hold Craft Fairs in the 90s, where staff would be needed at 6am on Saturday to open up and still be on hand at 8 to 9pm Sundays as the clean-up completed.
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