Lethbridge Judo Club coach medals at Veterans world championships

By Lethbridge Herald on November 21, 2024.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Tim Takahashi poses with his bronze medal at the Veterans world championships in Las Vegas.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

A Lethbridge Judo Club coach medalled in his second trip to the International Judo Federation’s World Championships for the Veterans class recently in Las Vegas.

Tim Takahashi won the bronze medal in the M5 lightweight  (-60 kilograms) Veterans class for Canada, which is for competitors in the age 50 to 54 year old range.

Veterans judo competitors are anyone over 30 years old.

“There were I want to say 11 or 12 other competitors in my category and yeah (it was) quite competitive,” said Takahashi.

Takahashi lost to a France competitor in the semi-final and beat another competitor from France to win the bronze medal.

Takahashi opened up the championships with a win over an Irish fighter and in the second round defeated a France fighter before the semi-finals.

“It was bittersweet so to speak,” said Takahashi.

“I was happy with it but I was a little disappointed. I thought I could do a little bit better but that’s just the way sports goes.”

There were 1,200 competitors at the championships and Takahashi noticed the fighter quality was higher.

“It was a very serious level (of) competition,” said Takahashi.

What made Takahashi go back after winning a bronze in 2016 was to represent the Lethbridge Judo Club.

“I wanted to show the other kids that hey (it) doesn’t matter if you’re old, you can still compete, you can still train, you can still work hard and still do well on an international level, ” said Takahashi.

Takahashi did not think these championship competition were made possible without the Lethbridge Judo Club’s help.

“Judo’s a sport where you cannot do it on your own,” he said.

“The first thing I thought when I won the medal was I was so thankful for all of my training partners. Like all the people that I lift weights with and do judo practice with.”

Takahashi qualified for the  world championships and got a ranking by competing in training camps and within Canada.

Takahashi attends Veterans nationals in Canada ever year.