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The 2026 Arnis competition season has already produced one of the year’s biggest gatherings of Filipino martial artists—and it isn’t finished yet.
The 18th WEKAF World Championships brought competitors from 13 countries to New Delhi, India, in August. Regional qualifiers and national championships helped build the teams that arrived there, while another major international competition—the 2026 WEKAF Pan-American Championships in Guatemala—is still ahead on October 9–11. Kashmir Indepth
For competitors, instructors, families and fans trying to follow competitive Arnis, this page tracks the important events of the 2026 season while also explaining how regional, national and international competition fit together.
We will continue updating the calendar as additional confirmed events become available.
The next major international stop on the 2026 Arnis calendar is the WEKAF Pan-American Championships, being held as part of MYFEST26 in the Antigua/Santo Domingo Xenacoj area of Guatemala.
The larger gathering combines several martial-arts competitions and is advertising more than 400 competitors representing more than 10 nations. The WEKAF portion includes padded stick fighting, continuous live-stick sparring and Sayaw weapon forms.
That makes Guatemala particularly interesting for people watching the international development of competitive Arnis. The Pan-American structure gives fighters from North, Central and South America another level of competition beyond their domestic tournaments.
It is also a relatively young part of the WEKAF landscape. The inaugural PAEKAF Pan-American Championships were held in Santo Domingo Xenacoj in October 2025, establishing a continental pathway for athletes throughout the Americas.
For American competitors in particular, Pan-American competition creates an important bridge between the national tournament system and the broader international WEKAF circuit.
The centerpiece of the 2026 international Arnis season was the 18th WEKAF World Championships, held at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.
The four-day championship brought together athletes from 13 countries for international Arnis competition. Kashmir Indepth
The final overall team standings were:
For host nation India, the overall championship represented a significant result in the continued international expansion of competitive Arnis. The Philippines, where Arnis originated and where the art remains both a cultural tradition and national sport, finished second overall, while Australia completed the podium. Kashmir Indepth
The Philippine performance also received formal recognition at home. On August 11, a resolution was filed in the Philippine House of Representatives commending the Philippine Arnis team—particularly the Lapu-Lapu Arnis de Abanico team—for its performance at the World Championships. The resolution independently records the event as taking place in New Delhi from August 1 through August 4. Congress of the Philippines
The significance of a WEKAF World Championship goes beyond which country finishes first.
International competition places different schools, regional traditions and training methods into the same competitive environment. Fighters who may spend most of their year working within relatively small Arnis communities suddenly encounter opponents shaped by different coaches and different interpretations of the same competitive rules.
That exchange has been part of WEKAF’s role since its development as an international competitive organization.
For athletes, Worlds is the visible end of a much longer process: local training, regional tournaments, national competition, team selection and finally international representation.
One of the most useful things the 2026 season illustrates is that there isn’t a single worldwide qualifying tournament for WEKAF Worlds.
The pathway is largely built at the national level.
Different member countries organize their own regional competitions, qualifying tournaments, national championships and team-selection systems. The details vary, but the basic progression often looks something like:
Local Competition → Regional Qualifier → National Championship/Team Selection → International Competition
The United States provides a particularly clear 2026 example.
Earlier in the season, MYFEST26 served as part of the regional qualification process leading toward the U.S. Nationals.
Events at this level are especially important because this is where the international competition pathway becomes accessible to ordinary practitioners.
A fighter doesn’t begin at the World Championships.
He or she begins at a local school, prepares for a ruleset, enters regional competition and discovers what happens when technique is placed under pressure against an unfamiliar opponent.
For a first-time competitor, that experience can be more important than the medal.
It exposes weaknesses that ordinary practice may not reveal: distance changes, hesitation, conditioning, unfamiliar timing and the psychological effect of facing someone who is genuinely trying to score.
Regional tournaments therefore serve two purposes. They are part of the competitive qualification structure, but they are also laboratories in which practitioners discover whether their training survives contact with an unpredictable opponent.
Competition in the Philippines extends well beyond the WEKAF international pathway.
Arnis also appears within regional and scholastic athletic competition, creating opportunities for younger athletes to compete in both forms and fighting divisions.
A good example from the 2026 season is the Davao Regional Athletic Association (DAVRAA) Meet, held in Tagum City from February 22–28, 2026. Official qualification records show elementary and secondary Arnis athletes among the participating delegations.
Published DAVRAA results show just how varied competitive Arnis can be. Categories included weight-class fighting along with synchronized Anyo divisions using double weapons and sword-and-dagger.
This broader Philippine competition ecosystem matters when trying to understand Arnis internationally.
WEKAF is an important part of competitive Arnis, but it is not synonymous with every Arnis competition. School athletics, regional organizations, national sporting structures, independent tournaments and other sanctioning bodies all contribute to the competitive landscape.
Australia has developed one of the more visible WEKAF communities outside the Philippines.
State-level competition provides athletes with opportunities to gain tournament experience before moving toward national and international competition. That layered approach—local or state competition feeding national-team development—is increasingly characteristic of organized competitive Arnis.
Australia’s third-place team finish at the 2026 World Championships illustrates the potential of that structure.
For competitors watching future seasons, Australia is therefore one of the national circuits worth following closely.
To someone encountering tournament Arnis for the first time, the word competition can be misleading.
There isn’t just one kind of Arnis event.
Depending on the tournament and sanctioning organization, competitors may encounter several very different tests of skill.
This is probably the image most people have when they imagine WEKAF competition: armored fighters exchanging strikes with rattan sticks under a defined ruleset.
It tests timing, combinations, conditioning, aggression management and the ability to continue functioning while an opponent is actively striking back.
Padded weapons allow a different competitive format and can make competition accessible under rules designed around a different level of contact and protective equipment.
Forms competition tests technical presentation rather than direct fighting.
Depending on the event, divisions may include traditional and non-traditional forms and single, double or other weapon categories.
Arnis is not limited to the familiar single stick.
Tournament divisions may incorporate double weapons, sword-and-dagger patterns and other weapon configurations, particularly within forms competition.
The exact divisions and rules vary by federation and tournament, so competitors should always obtain the current rules from the organizer rather than assuming that one event operates exactly like another.
Watching championship fighters can make competitive Arnis seem like something reserved for elite athletes.
It isn’t.
Regional competition is where many ordinary practitioners first test themselves.
If you’re considering entering a tournament, start by talking to your instructor about whether your current training corresponds to the rules used by the event. Tournament fighting is a skill in its own right, and even an experienced martial artist benefits from preparing specifically for the environment.
That means understanding legal targets and techniques, scoring, penalties, required equipment, match duration and the conditioning demands created by the rules.
It also means becoming comfortable in protective equipment before competition day.
Most importantly, don’t judge the value of the experience entirely by whether you win.
Competition provides information.
An unfamiliar opponent can expose habits that neither solo practice nor familiar training partners reveal. Your distance may change. Your preferred combination may disappear. You may discover that you rush, freeze or exhaust yourself faster than expected.
Those discoveries are useful.
The tournament gives you something concrete to take back into training.
The international spread of the 2026 calendar tells an interesting story about modern Arnis.
The World Championships brought 13 countries to India. The United States is developing a clearer national-team and regional-qualifier structure. Australia continues to field a strong international team. Philippine athletes compete through both international and domestic athletic systems. And Pan-American competition is establishing another continental layer for fighters throughout the Americas.
That doesn’t mean competitive Arnis is becoming uniform.
Quite the opposite.
One of the interesting features of Filipino martial arts has always been the enormous variety of schools, lineages, tactical preferences and teaching systems found under names such as Arnis, Eskrima and Kali.
Competition creates a place where at least some of those practitioners can meet under a common ruleset.
The tournament doesn’t replace the art.
It gives one part of the art somewhere to be tested.
As of October 2026, the major confirmed international event still immediately ahead is:
October 9–11 — WEKAF 2026 Pan-American Championships / MYFEST26 — Santo Domingo Xenacoj, Guatemala
The event includes WEKAF padded-stick fighting, continuous live-stick sparring and Sayaw competition and is part of a larger international martial-arts gathering expected to attract more than 400 competitors from over 10 nations. CombativeArts.net
Additional late-season Arnis and Filipino martial-arts seminars, camps and gatherings are held around the world, but we distinguish those from actual competitive tournaments in this calendar.
That distinction matters. Our goal isn’t to make the calendar appear larger than it is; it is to provide useful information for someone actually looking for Arnis competition.
As 2026 winds down, attention will gradually turn toward the next round of regional tournaments, national championships and international events.
We will treat 2027 as its own competition calendar rather than continually extending this page. That allows this article to remain a record and guide to the 2026 season while giving competitors a clean resource for upcoming events once the 2027 schedules begin to solidify.
For athletes, this is also when preparation for next year really begins.
The medals may be awarded on tournament day, but the work that produces them happens months earlier—in conditioning sessions, footwork drills, rounds with training partners and thousands of repetitions that nobody outside the training hall ever sees.
The 2026 season isn’t quite over.
Guatemala is next.
India finished first overall in the team standings at the 18th WEKAF World Championships, with the Philippines finishing second and Australia third. This does not mean India defeated the Philippines in a single championship match; the result reflects the countries' overall performances across the tournament.
The 18th WEKAF World Championships were held at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, India, in August 2026. Competitors representing 13 countries participated in the international Filipino martial arts competition.
The championship was held August 1–4, 2026. Earlier information surrounding the event included different dates and locations, but retrospective records identify New Delhi and August 1–4 as the final event details.
The Philippines finished second overall, behind host nation India and ahead of third-place Australia. The Philippine team's performance subsequently received formal recognition in the Philippine House of Representatives.
No. Although the WEKAF World Championships have concluded, international competition continues. The 2026 WEKAF Pan-American Championships are scheduled for October 9–11 in Santo Domingo Xenacoj, Guatemala, as part of the MYFEST26 international martial arts gathering.
Qualification varies by country. WEKAF member organizations typically use regional tournaments, national championships, team trials, or a combination of these to select their international teams. In the United States, for example, regional competition feeds into national competition and Team USA selection.
Events vary, but competitors may encounter live-stick sparring, padded-stick competition, and Sayaw or Anyo forms, along with divisions involving different weapons and age or experience classifications. Competitors should always check the rules for the individual tournament because divisions, protective equipment, and scoring can differ.
No. WEKAF is an important international competitive organization, but competitive Arnis is much broader. The Philippines has scholastic and regional athletic competitions, while independent organizations and other Filipino martial arts groups conduct tournaments around the world.
Yes. This page will remain focused on the 2026 Arnis competition season. As confirmed dates for regional, national, and international 2027 tournaments become available, they can be collected into a separate 2027 competition calendar.
Arnis: Philippines’ National Martial Art and Sport
The Evolution of Arnis Competitions: From Local Duels to World Championships
Arnis Competition Rules: How Filipino Stick Fighting Is Judged and Scored
Beginner’s Guide to Arnis, Escrima and Kali (Filipino Martial Arts)
Pro Arnis Training Goals: Protection, Coaching, Competition
Arnis Competition Calendar: Past, 2025 Events and Road to WEKAF 2026
