Abby Lloyd, 15, took home her third national title at the 2012 Canadian Judo Championships Friday, July 6. Competing in the under 48 kilograms division for women 17 and under, Abby trounced the competition at the Toronto event, defeating her opponents in mere seconds.
The day started out easy for Abby, who randomly received a bye that moved her to the next round without having to fight due to the odd number of competitors. Things quickly heated up though when Abby used a drop throw to pin her first opponent to the ground, winning the match in only 13 seconds.
Round three was also over in an instant. “That girl didn’t fare any better,” said her father Jeff Lloyd, laughing, as he referred to Abby’s opponent Valerie Bouchard. “That fight only lasted eight seconds and Abby got her with the exact same throw.”
Her second win propelled her to the gold-medal match, facing last year’s champion from a lower weight class, Jessica Klimkait.
“Abby knew that was going to be her competition,” said Jeff. “She knew she’d be meeting against her too.”
Deep into the match, Abby had taken some penalty points and was falling behind. Then, with only a minute left, Abby managed to knock her opponent to the ground and lock her into a chokehold. Jessica tapped out, snagging Abby the gold for a third year running.
Abby’s parents, back home in Powell River, had a bit of a harder time. “We got to watch the matches by streaming, but it stopped working just when Abby was going into the winning match,” Jeff explained. “We were on the phone with someone at the competition giving us a bad play-by-play.”
Although he didn’t get to see it in person, or even over the Internet, Abby’s father said he’s ecstatic about his daughter’s win. “It’s crazy to win it once,” he said. “I mean, that’s the best in Canada and Abby’s won it three years in a row.”
Because of her win, Abby was eligible to compete in the division for women under 20 of her same weight class. The six competitors were split into two groups. Abby defeated everybody in her pool, which should have put her in the gold-medal match, explained her father.
Instead, Abby faced the second-place person from the other group. Since Abby had mentally prepared to face the person in first place, it threw her, said Jeff.
Abby lost the fight by a hair’s breadth, earning the bronze medal in the under 20 division.
Though Abby couldn’t be reached for comment because of her busy training schedule, Abby’s father said she wanted the Peak to know she’s happy with her performance. “You know, a small mental error can be the difference between gold and bronze,” Jeff explained. “But she didn’t medal last year in the under 20 and that was one of her goals for this year.”
Next up, the judo star will be fighting at the Junior US Open Judo Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the end of July.
