Brooklyn judo athlete Abigail Smith is getting ready for the 2024 Canadian Open Championships in Montreal from May 23-26. (Rick Conrad)

Queens County judo athlete Abigail Smith is the first to admit she isn’t the best driver — yet.

Smith doesn’t have her drivers licence, but she’s learning. And if she takes the same approach to mastering the rules of the road as she does to racking up medals at national and international competitions, she’ll be motoring around in no time.

But first, the 16-year-old from Brooklyn is gearing up for what she calls her most important tournament of the year.

The 2024 Canadian Open Championships in Montreal are set for May 23 to 26. Smith will be competing in the U18 and U21 divisions. She’s been there twice before and won silver both times.

“My goal is to win,” she said in an interview this week. “I really think I can win this year. If I win in my U18 division, then I’ll be going with Team Canada to represent them at (World Championships Cadets), which is in Peru. So if I win, I’ll go to worlds, which is my goal. Still, if I don’t win, it’s a huge experience to be at nationals. It’s a big deal.”

So far, Smith seems to be on the right track. The Grade 10 student at Liverpool Regional High School captured two gold medals at the Eastern Canadian Championships in April. 

She won the top spot in the U18 division, and she also triumphed for the first time in the senior division.

“The senior division is always a lot harder, because I’m fighting women, and they’re more experienced and they have more knowledge of fighting. But knowing that I fit in in the senior division I know I’m on the right track for when I eventually am a senior, hopefully I’ll be medalling as well and hopefully I’ll keep winning.”

Her wins at the Eastern Canadian Championships were only a month after an impressive showing at the International Thuringia Cup in Germany in late March. She won two meets and lost two. But she says the experience was “next level, it was so amazing.

“When you’re training in Canada, you know most of your people so you’re all friends. But in Germany, everybody is there to win, even when you’re just training and doing a basic little practice fight, they’re going to try to kill you. So you have to fight like it’s the biggest fight of your life for every round you do. 

“It was really intense which is exactly what you need to train like if you want to get somewhere in judo.”

Smith was in Germany for a week and a half. She said she learned a lot.

‘The biggest thing I think it helped was my confidence, to be able to travel by myself, to be able to fight people who are not from Canada, to have no idea who the heck you’re fighting, that really boosted my confidence. … The competition of course was beneficial. But the training after, that was the reason I was there, for the training, it was amazing.”

Smith is doing more than making an impression on the judo mat. She is also Sport Nova Scotia’s True Sport ambassador for May. Twelve young athletes were chosen from around Nova Scotia to post about their experiences and to promote the values of fair, inclusive and safe play.

“Lots of ambassadors have been posting about one or two experiences. I’ve been posting about my experiences. But I’ve been involving my judo team and my coaches so they can share their experiences as well.

“Having a bond with my team is so important. We work as a team together so whatever I’m doing, I want them to be involved in, so I want them to be promoted too.”

Smith trains four days a week with her club Nova United Martial Arts, in addition to daily strength and cardio workouts. She also coaches young judo athletes two days a week in Liverpool and older athletes one day a week in Halifax. 

While Smith says she’s getting busier with school, training, coaching and competitions, she also has to find time to get behind the wheel. 

“I just turned 16, I want to be able to learn to drive now. So I have to make time for that. I have to make time for training. I’m getting to the age where judo needs to be my main priority, so I have to add in more hours for judo. It’s been a lot lately, school’s been getting harder as I’m getting older. But I’m doing my best to keep up with everything, and if there’s a point where I can’t handle it, I’ll cut back. But hopefully, I’m never going to have to do that because I never want to cut back on judo.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Abigail Smith with her coach Jason Scott at the Elite National Championships in Edmonton on Jan. 13 and 14. (Abigail Smith photo)

Another Queens County athlete is getting ready to represent Canada on the world stage.

Last Friday, Sarah Mitton of Brooklyn won her first international gold medal in the shot put when she beat the rest of the field at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Now, 16-year-old judo athlete Abigail Smith of Brooklyn is training hard for the International Thuringia Cup in Germany on March 23. 

Smith trains four days a week after school at Nova United Martial Arts, her judo club in Halifax. And she’s getting ready for a sold-out fundraiser this Saturday at Route 3 Cellar Bar and Grill. It’s an ‘80s-themed bowling tournament at 3 p.m.

Smith has had a busy year already nationally and internationally.

She finished third at the Danish Open in early February. She captured two bronze medals in her class at a national judo meet in Edmonton in January. And in November, she captured silver and bronze at the Pan American Cup in Montreal, her first international competition. 

She is ranked in the Judo Canada Top 10 in the U-18 division. Sport Nova Scotia has chosen her to be one of 12 Nova Scotia True Sport Athlete Ambassadors for 2024. 

And she is one of only two members of her club representing Canada at separate events in Germany.

Smith told QCCR in January that she’s lucky to have such great family, community and team support.

“People think judo is an individual sport and it is an individual sport, but it’s a huge team sport because you can’t get anywhere without your team, your training partners,” she says. “And having a good team you can rely on in sport and outside of sport is really important and that’s what’s helped me get so far in judo.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen below to the QCCR news update for Tuesday

Abigail Smith, 16, of Brooklyn, stands with her coach Jason Scott, displaying one of the two bronze medals she won at the Elite National Championships in Edmonton on Jan. 13 and 14. (Photo via Abigail Smith)

By Rick Conrad

Abigail Smith credits a lot of people for her success so far and so young in national and international judo meets. 

Her parents, her coaches, her teammates, her teachers. 

But what really gets her into a competitive frame of mind is some good ol’ country music. 

“A lot of people like to listen to pump-up music before a fight, but I like to listen to my country music to keep my calm and not thinking about judo before I do judo. That helps me to not think about what I have to do and then do it.”

So far, listening to the likes of Sam Barber and Luke Combs has helped keep the 16-year-old Brooklyn resident on the straight and narrow.

She won two bronze medals at a national judo meet in Edmonton last weekend, just before her 16th birthday. And in November, she captured silver and bronze at the Pan American Cup in Montreal, her first international competition. 

The medals at the Elite National Judo Championships in Edmonton were especially sweet, she says, because it featured the top judo athletes from across the country. 

“This is the biggest event in Canada. It’s a lot of work to get selected. So this year this was my favourite medal. Of course, I’m never happy with a bronze medal but this medal meant something to me so I was very happy with that. It means a lot.”

In Edmonton, she had her sights set on beating a rival judoka she hadn’t defeated yet. When they met in the U-18 division on Saturday, Smith lost to her. But on Sunday, in the senior division, Smith came back with a vengeance.

“She was my first fight and I had a very hard fight but I beat her, so winning that bronze medal meant a lot to me because I had been training specifically to beat that one person. So it was a big moment, we’d been working a while for that, me and my coach.”

Smith has been working at judo for 11 years. Based at Nova United Martial Arts in Halifax, she trains three to four days a week for up to two hours each session. That’s in addition to regular cardio and strength workouts. 

She said her father Troy Smith first got her interested in the sport.

“My first coach worked with my dad and my dad was like, ‘I have a crazy daughter at home that needs to get some energy out,’ and he brought me to judo with his co-workers.”

Smith, who is in Grade 10 at Liverpool Regional High School, hasn’t looked back. She is ranked in the Judo Canada Top 10 in the U-18 division. Sport Nova Scotia has chosen her to be one of 12 Nova Scotia True Sport Athlete Ambassadors for 2024. True Sport emphasizes fair, inclusive and safe play. 

She’ll be travelling to Denmark in early February to compete in the Danish Open.

And she just found out that she was selected to be part of Team Canada at the International Thuringia Cup Judo in Germany on March 23.

Competing nationally and internationally does cut into her school work, Smith says, but her teachers have been very supportive.

“I’m able to do what I’m doing, missing a lot of school because the teachers are very understanding and help me with my work to help me catch back up. So it’s nice to have teachers supporting me.”

She also credits the community support she’s received from the Region of Queens, Folk Law, Main and Mersey, Best Western Plus Liverpool and Sport Nova Scotia, as well as her coach Jason Scott and her teammates.

“People think judo is an individual sport and it is an individual sport, but it’s a huge team sport because you can’t get anywhere without your team, your training partners,” she says. “And having a good team you can rely on in sport and outside of sport is really important and that’s what’s helped me get so far in judo.”

She says she’s learned a lot of valuable lessons from the sport.

“That what you put in comes out. Whatever you want, it can happen. But you just have to put in that work and that extra effort and if you don’t, you’re not going to see the results you want, but if you do, then you’ll see results. And to be patient.”

With that frame of mind, she says she’s on track for her next big goal.

“I always say that I will be competing at Olympics and representing Canada at worlds one day so what I want to happen, I always say is going to happen. So hopefully, it will happen one day, Team Canada and the Olympics hopefully. We’re on track for that now.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the radio version of this story below