Lavanna Laass overcame an injured hand to earn a bronze medal on the first day of competition at the 2013 Canadian Judo Championship in Richmond.
The member of the Hart Judo Academy won the bronze Thursday in the under-18 girls -63 kilogram division competing for Team B.C. It's the second bronze medal Laass has won at the national championship. In 2012 she won the bronze in the 57 kilogram division.
"It's pretty amazing considering how tough my division is this year, and how it was last year, I was really proud of how I did even with my hand injured," said the 17-year-old.
Laass dislocated her finger six days before the championship during a practice session with her teammates in Prince George.
"It was difficult to find a way to grip the other girls," said Laass. "It took me a long time to figure out how to do it. I just tried to overhand grip instead of my usual stiff-arming grip because I couldn't use two of my fingers. Basically I tried to use one hand most of the time."
Laass said it took her a while to figure out and was part of the reason she lost her first match to the eventual silver medalist from Quebec.
"It was a really good fight and a close match, but I didn't know how to deal with my hand yet," she said.
But she never considered pulling out of the tournament.
"The only thing worse than fighting with an injured hand would be not fighting at all," said Laass.
There were eight fighters in Laass' division. The gold medal was also won by a Quebec fighter.
Laass was the only member of the Hart Judo Academy to earn a position on the podium. There were nine athletes from the Academy at the national event.
The Kelly Road secondary student said next year she plans on competing in the Quebec, Edmonton and Ontario Open tournaments and then go to nationals again.
"I'm really hoping to get into that gold-medal match," said Laass.
The 2014 Canadian Judo Championship will be held in Quebec during the May long weekend.
Members of the North Capital Judo Club had won two silver and two bronze medals in the first three days of the four-day championship at the Olympic Oval.
Ivan Pilcik, master men (50-plus) and Steve Plain, masters men (30-40 category), both in the plus-81 kilogram division won the silver medals, while the bronze medals were won by Ronal Beauchesne, in the plus-81 kilogram division masters men (40-50 category) and Stefan Zwiers in the senior men, 100 kilogram division.
Elijah Zwiers was competing in the under-21 junior men, -90 kilogram division Sunday.
