The most important meeting in the history of karate was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, from July 16 - 18.
After three days of intensive meetings and positive discussion, major international karate federations set aside 35 years of differences and formed a unified body, United World Karate (UWK) to represent the sport of karate world-wide.
The unification talks were joined by executive officials from 16 countries representing the seven acknowledged major international and world governing bodies of karate.
The bodies include International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF), World Karate Confederation (WKC), World Union of Karate-do Federations (WUKF), International Karate Union (IKU), International Karate Organization–Kyokushinkaikan (IKOK), World Fudokan Federation (WFF) and World United Karate Organization (WUKO).
The T&T Karate Federation (TTKF) is under the World United Karate Organization (WUKO). The TTKF president is Virginia Seebaran-Willams, while Darryl Williams is the WUKO vice-president and coordinator of referees.
These organizations represent more than 110 member countries representing millions of individual karate participants world-wide.
"It is a dream come true," said Richard Jorgensen, chairman of the ITKF and newly-elected president of United World Karate.
"We have spent such a long time trying to achieve unification that it is hard to imagine it has finally happened.
"By celebrating our diversity and combining our strengths, we have now been able to achieve the expectations of unification as outlined to us by the IOC Judicial Commission and endorsed by the 101st session of the International Olympic Committee back in 1993."
The organisation will host the first United World Karate Championships in 2015 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.