Four judokas from Powell River brought gold medals home from the British Columbia Judo Championships held last weekend. Powell River’s Sunshine Coast Judo Club was able to send six competitors to the annual competition held on Saturday, October 19 in Abbotsford. Nicolas Ouellet, Abby Lloyd, and sisters Krystin and Katana Cote, all returned home as BC champions and the sisters’ father Kevin Cote won silver. Assistant coach Jeff Lloyd said that this showing at the provincial level brings “tremendous respect for the small club. It’s just crazy for such a small club at this level and they were dominant wins,” he said. “There were a lot of bigger clubs there who didn’t have that kind of record.” Both Katana and Krystin dominated their divisions, under-14 and under-16 respectively, beating their competitors in record times. Katana won her first match in 10 seconds and her second in about 15 seconds. Then Krystin went out and almost duplicated her sister’s performance, said Jeff. Matches at that level have a three-minute maximum, he added. Abby fought and won her first match against a competitor from Prince George. “The girl never scored a point and Abby worked her over pretty bad,” said Jeff. Her second match to win the gold, her ninth in a row, was over in nine seconds. “Abby threw her and arm barred in nine seconds,” said Jeff. “She had her wrapped up by the time she hit the ground and she tapped.” Taiki Kawanami is an international exchange student from Japan. The championship was his second appearance fighting in the elite black belt level of competition. Lloyd said that while Kawanami did not place in the competition, he has improved since last year. “His fights could have gone either way,” said Jeff. Kevin fought in the tournament registered in senior men’s under-83-kilogram division. “He clawed his way back from a loss in his first fight to taking silver in the division,” said Jeff. For 16-year-old Ouellet this was his first judo competition. Ouellet usually competes in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and trains with Sunshine Coast Judo Club’s sister jiu-jitsu organization. He competed in two divisions to take advantage of the experience gained competing at a high level tournament. He entered the under-21 and the senior men’s under-73-kilogram divisions. Although he lost his first fight, in the second he got a better feel for it, said Jeff. By the time he was up against the senior men, he was in top form and took the gold medal, he added. “He won with arm barres, chokes and submissions,” he said. “He showed so much maturity it was unbelievable. People were gathering around at his matches to watch.” Training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu has given these athletes the edge they need to win, said Jeff, and the style of judo that Abby teaches gives fighters experience to win matches. Both judo and jiu-jitsu are similar fighting styles with judo focusing on throws from a standing position and jiu-jitsu focusing on submission holds once the fight has moved to the ground. “If you’re standing up and you don’t have any ground fighting skills you’re very one-dimensional,” said Jeff. “The fight’s not over when it hits the ground, it may just be beginning.”
