{"id":8221,"date":"2025-01-27T16:56:31","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T20:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=8221"},"modified":"2025-01-29T11:30:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:30:55","slug":"team-canada-picks-queens-countys-abigail-smith-to-join-european-judo-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/01\/27\/team-canada-picks-queens-countys-abigail-smith-to-join-european-judo-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada picks Queens County’s Abigail Smith to join European judo tour"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Abigail Smith displays her gold medal at a PanAmerican judo meet in Montreal in November. (Abigail Smith photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Abigail Smith has already made a mark on the Canadian and world judo stage, and she\u2019s not done yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Grade 11 student at Liverpool Regional High School will be competing against judokas from other countries yet again as she prepares for a tour of Europe with Team Canada in March.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith will be travelling to Spain, Portugal and Croatia for European Cup tournaments and training camps as part of the European Judo Tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I travelled with Team Canada one time last year which was for an event in Germany, and I was so excited for it,” Smith told QCCR.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And now I got selected to be on a tour which is an even bigger deal. I didn\u2019t think that would happen for me this year at all. My main focus was nationals, but now I\u2019m spending a month in Europe. It\u2019s crazy to me, I didn\u2019t think it was going to happen to me this year. It\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s looking forward to the more intense competition of the European tournaments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe training for me is the most important thing. Getting to train with different bodies. In Canada, you know everyone you’re training with and you’re getting familiar with different fighting styles. So getting to go outside of Canada, and fighting round after round with people from all different countries, you\u2019re getting so much experience from it, it\u2019s going to make my judo way better. Tournaments in Europe are a lot different than tournaments in Canada, there\u2019s a lot more aggression, there\u2019s a lot more people who want to win. So I\u2019m getting so much experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two of the tournaments are in the older U21 or junior age division, while the third is in her usual U18 or cadet class. But Smith is no stranger to punching above her age.<\/span><\/p>\n

In November, she won a bronze medal in the older division at the Quebec Open and followed that up with another bronze in the same age class at the Pan American Canada Cup. And she snagged two gold medals at the same meets in her usual division.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 17-year-old Brooklyn resident, who began judo lessons when she was four years old, is ranked in the Top 10 in her age division in Canada.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith says juggling the travel, training and tournaments with school and a social life are worth it. They\u2019re all part of building toward her ultimate goal, which is to compete at the World Judo Championships and at the Olympics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause judo is my life. The thing I love the most is judo and everything that comes along with it. <\/span><\/p>\n

“So for me, doing all those things, like sacrificing time with friends, I want to go to the Olympics, I want to be world champion, and I know the goals that I want and that I\u2019ve dedicated so much time to, they’re not going to come true unless I keep with it. So I keep with it. Everyone in my life is so supportive. They know I need to train.<\/span><\/p>\n

“My family, my friends, my community, everyone is so on board with what I do, it makes it 10 times easier.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith trains with Nova United Martial Arts in Halifax four days a week. She says she takes notes at every competition and training camp she attends. And she works with her coach Jason Scott on how to improve.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the next couple of months, she\u2019ll be focused on getting ready for the European tour in March and a February meet in Denmark, where she also competed last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to win of course because it’s my first European tour. My biggest goal is to go out there and fight, do my best. Show the European tour me, show them me. I want to learn so much. You’ll never learn everything about judo. So each time I go away, I\u2019m learning so much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After she returns from Europe, she\u2019ll be getting ready for the national judo championships in Calgary in May. If she wins there, she\u2019ll be on Team Canada for the world championships in Bulgaria in August.<\/span><\/p>\n

But she doesn\u2019t want to think too far ahead. She\u2019s just hoping to do her best wherever she goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope everything goes well so I can bring back good results for everyone supporting me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of the story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/abigailsmitheurocupjan2725.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abigail Smith has already made a mark on the Canadian and world judo stage, and she\u2019s not done yet. The Grade 11 student at Liverpool Regional High School will be competing against judokas from other countries yet again as she prepares for a tour of Europe with Team Canada in March.\u00a0 Smith will be travelling […]<\/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":[1614,48,2840,1841,2839,2838,1619,1615,2837,2844,2841,2843,49,2842,1626,2845],"class_list":["post-8221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-abigail-smith","tag-brooklyn","tag-croatia","tag-denmark","tag-europe","tag-european-cup","tag-jason-scott","tag-judo","tag-judoka","tag-pan-american-canada-cup","tag-portugal","tag-quebec-open","tag-queens-county","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-tournaments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8221","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=8221"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8230,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8221\/revisions\/8230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}