Judo athlete Ali Briggs found out the hard way that in sports, anything can happen and it’s not always within your control.
Briggs competed at the 2012 Canadian National Judo Championships in Toronto on July 4-8, but during the bus ride to the competition venue, a bag containing her competition gear and her purse fell out of the bus baggage compartment and was lost.
She was able to borrow what she needed at the competition, but the extra stress and worry about her lost purse and identification was enough to rattle her.
Briggs fought in the U20 52-kilogram division and beat her first opponent Emily Green of New Brunswick. A loss to Josianne Gagne of Quebec in her second fight took Briggs out of the competition, while Gagne moved ahead to eventually win the gold medal.
For extra experience, Briggs stepped up a division to also fight in the Senior 52-kg category where she lost her first and only fight to eventual silver medallist Audrey Francis-Methot.
Briggs trains with the 100 Mile House Kokoro Judo Club and her coach and father, Ian Briggs says, “She sees how close she is now to potentially getting there.”
Ali was a national bronze medallist in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
She will be attending University of Lethbridge in September where she will continue to train with the school program.
Kokoro teammate Stephanie Salzbrenner was also scheduled to compete at nationals, but had to drop out due to a concussion suffered at a competition in April.
