Four judokas from Powell River will be throwing the competition as they represent Vancouver Island at BC Winter Games which start on February 20 in Mission.
At the end of November 2013, five judoka from the Sunshine Coast Judo Club, under the coaching of Team Canada hopeful Abby Lloyd, travelled to Nanaimo to compete in the Vancouver Island zone six qualifying competition.
Jeff Lloyd, Abby’s father, said that it was the largest number of contenders the qualifying tournament has ever seen.
“They had a huge turnout who fought off and ours did exceptionally well,” said Jeff.
All five members of the club secured places on the team for judokas aged 13 to 16, though Jeff added that one had to drop out.
Vaihau Castagnoli, Cameron Carter, Dominic Smith and Krysten Cote will be fighting in Mission.
“We’ve never ever had a showing like that for the winter games level,” said Jeff. “We’ve had two go before but never this many kids.”
He said that the number of athletes from the judo club is a testament to Abby’s teaching style.
“She’s a fighting judoka, not a textbook one,” he said. “They’re all fighters and it showed when they fought off. We’re very proud.”
All the fighters are in training and preparing for their matches where they may face more experienced contenders. On the first day “it will be us against all the other zones,” he said. Then the following day they will have team fights where they put six or seven fighters in various weight groups together and they fight for accumulated team total points.
“We’re sending them down with the main focus of doing their best,” he added. “Don’t try to be the best, just do your best.”
Abby just finished her National Coaching Certification Program level two coaching endorsement, so that she can coach higher level athletes. She is preparing to go back up against some of the world’s best judokas at the Pacific International tournament in Richmond and this spring will head to Europe to fight as she continues to build points to help her gain a place on Team Canada.
