Abby Lloyd battled her way to the second round in the 2013 Cadet World Judo Championships in Miami, Florida.
Thirty-four countries participated in the tournament which is considered a precursor to the Olympic Games.
The tournament is organized as a single-knock out, so to win the competition fighters have to win each of the four matches to enter the medal round.
Abby was unavailable for comment before press time, but the Peak spoke to her father Jeff Lloyd.
She met Sweden in the first round, Jeff said, and “completely dominated and controlled her really well.”
Announcers gave commentary for feature matches and Jeff said that the announcers of the match were extremely complimentary.
“They were very impressed with Abby,” he said. “She did a beautiful foot sweep and rode it out and ran the length of the time out. The girl never scored on Abby and she took Sweden out in the first round.”
In her second match she came up against Mongolia and according to Jeff, Abby’s opponent was a lot bigger than her.
“It changes the dynamics of the match,” he said. “Not strength-wise, just in reach and length.”
Abby did really well and controlled her the best she could, said Jeff, but Abby’s opponent used her reach advantage. “She’s really disappointed with her performance, but she said she’s learned from the experience.”
She lost the match by two points, so her Mongolian opponent did not dominate her by any means, he said.
“She was in it right up to the last minute,” said Jeff. “She just couldn’t get inside to score.”
Readers can view Abby’s first fight against Sweden online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_qMnm4QscQ at the 55:30 mark.
