One of the top officials at Judo Canada likes what he saw last week in Prince George.
Andrzej Sadej, the sports director of Ottawa-based Judo Canada, was in Prince George for the Youth Provincial championships at the Northern Sport Centre at UNBC.
The three-day tournament, on Field 2 of the NSC, served as a test event for the venue and volunteers for the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
"This is very adequate in terms of size," said Sadej, who arrived in Prince George April 2 and left Sunday afternoon. "We'll need at least 1,000 seats for spectators and we don't have that capacity right now. It needs to be decorated to the standards of the Canada Winter Games, but what they [local organizers] have proposed to me is more than adequate."
The tournament featured 130 judokas from all 14 clubs in B.C., including 50 athletes from the three Prince George Clubs - the Hart, North Capital and Prince George judo clubs.
Sadej was also impressed that there are three judo clubs in a city of Prince George's size which meant volunteers who know the sport.
"The volunteers handled everything well, they were a group of people who were very receptive and they are already very knowledgeable about what they're doing."
Aline Strasdin, who is not only a coach with the Prince George Judo Club, but is a Team B.C. coach (along with Bruce Kamstra of the Hart Judo Club), as well as the 2015 Canada Winter Games sport lead for judo, is confident everything will go as planned a year from now.
"As a test event for volunteers, they did awesome," she said. "Andrzej was very happy with the volunteers and we just have to change the facility a little bit, it's minor things, and we'll work with the venue to get the proper seating."
The tournament also served as showcase for everything judo in northern B.C. and Prince George.
"It was great for Prince George families to see this high-level of competition in Prince George," she said. "It was a very good weekend."
