Biography
Håkon Koren has trained at Kimura Gjøvik since 2014, working through the ranks in the Nova União / Kimura lineage to black belt. Multiple Norwegian national medals mark the domestic side of the journey, but his international result is what stands out: a top-16 finish at the 2024 ADCC European Trials in Croatia, against a field of 105 European competitors.
The headline moment came earlier, at Nordic Grappling Challenge 2022, where he won his superfight by submitting a former European champion in 40 seconds. It is the kind of result — short, decisive, against credentialled opposition — that tells you more about a competitor than any season-long medal tally.
A year-long sports-studies education sits behind the coaching he now does at Kimura Gjøvik, where he carries one of the cleaner Nova União lines in inland Norway and runs the technical side of the room for the next wave of competitors.