Dante St. Prix of New Westminster took home a bronze medal in the under-17 boys' under-60 kilogram class at the Canadian judo national championships on July 6.
Team B.C. won 30 medals, including four gold, seven silvers and 19 bronze. This year, the national championship included both the junior u-15, u-17 and u-20 championship, as well as, the senior and over-45 masters and kata championships.
In his first match, Dante, who trains at Ishikawa Judo Club at the Nikkei Cultural Centre in Burnaby, lost to an opponent from Ontario after the four-minute match went into golden score, with an additional 2 minutes.
Dante refocused and defeated his next opponent from Manitoba on points with a waza-ari and a yuko. Both Dante's third and fourth matches were fought against judokas who were ranked first and second in Ontario in that division. Dante defeated both with ippon, in matches that lasted under two minutes with one of his favorite techniques - tai otoshi.
The match to determine the bronze medal was against a judoka from Quebec, who previously won the 2012 Ontario Open. That match lasted the full four minutes and Dante won with a waza-ari. Last year, Dante also won a bronze medal in the u15 under-55kg division in Sept Iles, Que.
Dante completed the first year of the pre-IB Program in New Westminster Secondary School this year and made it onto the honour roll, also winning the Leonore Peyton Memorial Award from Place des Arts for Saxophone.
The next Canadian national judo championship will be held in BC.
