{"id":7329,"date":"2024-05-17T09:06:27","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T12:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7329"},"modified":"2024-05-17T09:07:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T12:07:03","slug":"queens-countys-abigail-smith-goes-full-speed-ahead-on-judo-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/05\/17\/queens-countys-abigail-smith-goes-full-speed-ahead-on-judo-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Full speed ahead for Queens County’s Abigail Smith on judo journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brooklyn judo athlete Abigail Smith is getting ready for the 2024 Canadian Open Championships in Montreal from May 23-26. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

Queens County judo athlete Abigail Smith is the first to admit she isn\u2019t the best driver \u2014 yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith doesn\u2019t have her drivers licence, but she\u2019s 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\u2019ll be motoring around in no time.<\/span><\/p>\n

But first, the 16-year-old from Brooklyn is gearing up for what she calls her most important tournament of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s been there twice before and won silver both times.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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\u2019ll 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\u2019t win, it\u2019s a huge experience to be at nationals. It\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She won the top spot in the U18 division, and she also triumphed for the first time in the senior division.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019m on the right track for when I eventually am a senior, hopefully I\u2019ll be medalling as well and hopefully I\u2019ll keep winning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201cnext level, it was so amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re training in Canada, you know most of your people so you\u2019re 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\u2019s the biggest fight of your life for every round you do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really intense which is exactly what you need to train like if you want to get somewhere in judo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith was in Germany for a week and a half. She said she learned a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith is doing more than making an impression on the judo mat. She is also Sport Nova Scotia\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLots of ambassadors have been posting about one or two experiences. I’ve been posting about my experiences. But I\u2019ve been involving my judo team and my coaches so they can share their experiences as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a bond with my team is so important. We work as a team together so whatever I\u2019m doing, I want them to be involved in, so I want them to be promoted too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While Smith says she\u2019s getting busier with school, training, coaching and competitions, she also has to find time to get behind the wheel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019m getting to the age where judo needs to be my main priority, so I have to add in more hours for judo. It\u2019s been a lot lately, school’s been getting harder as I\u2019m getting older. But I’m doing my best to keep up with everything, and if there\u2019s a point where I can\u2019t handle it, I\u2019ll cut back. But hopefully, I’m never going to have to do that because I never want to cut back on judo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/abigailsmithfolomay1624.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queens County judo athlete Abigail Smith is the first to admit she isn\u2019t the best driver \u2014 yet. Smith doesn\u2019t have her drivers licence, but she\u2019s 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\u2019ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1614,2203,48,2209,2208,1615,2202,1627,2210,1617,2207,49,1625,1626,2205,2204,2206],"class_list":["post-7329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-abigail-smith","tag-ahtlete","tag-brooklyn","tag-canadian-open-championships","tag-eastern-canadian-championship","tag-judo","tag-judo-canada","tag-martial-arts","tag-montreal","tag-nova-united-martial-arts","tag-peru","tag-queens-county","tag-sport-nova-scotia","tag-sports","tag-thuringia-cup","tag-true-sport-ambassador","tag-world-championships-cadets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7336,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7329\/revisions\/7336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}