For Meghan Gatzke, judo has always been more about practice and less about competition. Her dedication to one led to gold in the other Saturday at the Civic Centre.
Gatzke, who trains at the North Capital Judo Club, battled to top spot in her division at the Prince George Open. On the mat in the Under-20 novice women's class, the 16-year-old had two bouts and won both of them by ippon or full point. First, Gatzke beat clubmate Hannah Wilkins with a throw and then she defeated Miriam Schilling of Williams Lake with a 25-second hold-down.
"I'm very happy," said Gatzke, a third-year judoka. "I trained hard for this tournament and I'm just glad I did well in it.
"I feel like sometimes I'm not ready for competitions so I won't go into them," she added. "I'll just do it for the practice more. Not only that, I've never been really big on judo until this season. This season was the only one that I've actually done more tournaments in."
See Monday's Citizen for more.
