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One more step for Zwiers |
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Written by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
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The 19-year-old Prince George resident recently returned home from an Olympic team training camp in Montreal and, next week, will be on a plane bound for Europe. Once there, Zwiers will compete in tournaments in Germany and Turkey to see if he can qualify for the world junior championships, Oct. 16-19 in Thailand.
Zwiers, the current Canadian junior champ in the under-100-kilogram division, needs a top-three finish in either of the European tournaments or a total of six match victories to secure a spot in the junior worlds. He will fight in Berlin on Aug. 17 and will be on the mat in Istanbul on Aug. 24.
Zwiers, a member of the Prince George Judo Club, won't be holding anything back as he tries to advance to worlds.
"I've got nothing to lose -- I can only gain," he said. "I'm going to go give 100 per cent and see where it takes me."
Zwiers will have extra incentive to get to the junior world event. He's in his final days as a junior athlete and will start competing at the senior level in the fall. Aline Strasdin, his coach at the P.G. Judo Club, marvels at just how far he has come in the sport.
"He started judo with us as a six-year-old in our tykes program," she said. "He was very shy and didn't like the attention on himself. So then we worked him up to trying a tournament out of town and worked him through those ranks. Then he'd only go to the tournaments if his dad went. Finally we broke him out of that shell and broke him through each level. It's a great case of a kid who put his mind to something, and he's on the international scene. If we can keep him injury-free and keep him motivated, I think he could do well. It's hard to say what would happen in four years (for the 2012 Olympics in London)."
Zwiers was asked to attend last month's Olympic team training camp in Montreal because of his gold-medal showing at junior nationals in Toronto just days before. While at the training camp, he was a sparring partner for Canadian Olympian Keith Morgan.
"I took a lot of falls," Zwiers said.
"Against those guys, it's all survival. If you can not get thrown, that's good."
The upcoming Beijing Olympics will be the fourth Games for Morgan. Going head-to-head against such an accomplished judoka -- and just being in that Olympic environment -- was motivational for Zwiers.
"It definitely showed me what I have to be to reach the Olympic calibre," said Zwiers, who also won a silver medal at senior nationals earlier this season in Quebec City. "It's definitely not out of my reach, I think. In Prince George, it's a little hard to get up there. I think in one or two years I'll probably move to Montreal to do training if I keep doing as well as I am.
"I'm going to take judo as far as I can and if it leads to the Olympics I'm definitely going to go," Zwiers added. "Right now I'm on an upward climb and I'm just going to keep climbing if I can."
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 August 2008 )
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