Powell River athlete Abby Lloyd is still kicking butt and taking names as she competes in judo tournaments across Canada and prepares for world matches in the new year.
Her latest triumphs came at the Ontario Youth International competition in Brampton in early November. Lloyd came away from the competition with a gold in the Under 17 category in the under-48-kilogram division and a silver in the Under 20 category.
Lloyd went undefeated in two fights in the U17 category to handily win gold. On her second day of fighting, which happened to fall on her 15th birthday, in the Under 20 category Lloyd lost her first match but won her next two to reach the gold medal bout.
For her gold medal fight Lloyd fought Nova Scotia’s Whitney Lohnes, who was also the one to beat Lloyd earlier in the day by judges’ decision. Lohnes had recently returned from fighting in the 2011 World Junior Judo Championships in Cape Town, South Africa. The final match went the full four minutes with no score. The match went extra rounds, called “golden score,” where Lloyd lost by a single penalty.
Next up for Lloyd is a four-day training session in Abbotsford under the tutelage of Nick Tritton, a member of Judo Canada who fought in the 2008 Summer Olympics. On January 22 Lloyd will travel to Saskatchewan to fight in an open tournament there in the Under 17 and Under 20 categories. March will see Lloyd off to Germany to fight for Team Canada in a world event.
“I’m actually really busy,” said Lloyd. “I just really go with it. You’ve just got to really love it to be able to keep with it. I really enjoy it and I’ll do anything to keep doing it.”
Lloyd isn’t the only judo athlete out of Powell River making news. Kyle Cook, 15, recently qualified to fight at the 2012 BC Winter Games in Vernon. Cook fought and finished undefeated at a tournament in Victoria to qualify for the games. Lloyd, who is ineligible to qualify because of her participation in national events, will be going with Cook as an assistant coach.
Lloyd will also be going for her black belt in judo in June, which she now qualifies for having had her brown belt for over a year. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu Lloyd is an orange belt with two black stripes, a junior ranking.
