Over the past year, Tami Goto has put her judo skills to the test in Argentina, Portugal and Germany and she's been invited to compete for Canada at the under-18/cadet world championships in Kazakhstan.
Her passport bears the stamps of the places the 17-year-old Prince George Judo Club member has visited in her judo travels and she's also been busy winning medals within her own borders - gold at the Quebec Open, silver at the Ontario Open and silver at the Canada Cup.
But until she met Yuki Yokosawa, nowhere in her judo travels had Goto ever grappled with an Olympic medalist. Yokosawa fought for Japan at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and came home with silver in the -52 kilogram weight class. Now 38, having retired from competitive judo in 2008, she immigrated to Canada eight years ago and now coaches the Steveston Judo Club.
She was invited as a guest coach to this past weekend's Prince George Judo Open to put on a few clinics for the kids in Judo BC's petit samurai group and she demonstrated her skills on Goto.
"When we go to Vancouver she's there and she helps all the time," said Goto, the alternate for Team B.C. at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer. "It feels good when you throw her, almost, it's like, 'I almost threw an Olympian.'
Goto did not place in the medals in either of her European competitions, losing two German opponents in each of the single-knockout tournaments, but gained valuable experience in the training camps which followed.
"It was nervewracking, there was about 32 in my category and here you only get like six or seven and I didn't do so well," said Goto.
"I got my revenge in the training camps when I got to fight all of them."
In the one-day Prince George Open Saturday in the gym at Duchess Park secondary school Goto had three -48kg matches against Brooke Corbett of the Hart Judo Academy.
Friends off the mat, their matches were tame by comparison to what each is capable when the stakes are high like they will be when the two provincial development team members compete next month at the Canadian championships in Edmonton. Goto took the first match, Corbett won the second and claimed the rubber match when Goto tapped out of her opponent's armbar.
"Tami always wins," said Corbett.
"I like fighting her, it's fun," added Goto.
"We got some nice throws on each other."
Goto, a Grade 11 student at College Heights secondary school, has been practicing judo since she was six, following the lead of her father, a native of Japan who competed in the sport in his home country.
Corbett, 17, who will graduate this spring from Kelly Road secondary school, is in her sixth year of judo. She won bronze at the Canada Cup in Montreal last summer and just returned from an under-21 tournament in Japan, the birthplace of judo.
"That was so cool," said Corbett.
"It was a big training camp and they have dojos in their high schools and they're so good."
Both enjoy the travel and the competitive aspect of judo and what it does for their physical fitness and self-defence confidence.
They persistence training on the mats translates into disciplined work habits in school. Despite missing more than 30 school days traveling to tournaments they are both on the principal's list - for the right reasons.
"Judo pushes me to work my hardest and be my best and be more open to new people and trying new things," said Corbett. "It's a good way to let out some energy and anger, if you've had a bad day."
"You make so many friends in judo," Goto added.
Goto was envious of Corbett's trip to Japan and hopes to one day compete in the country where her parents grew up and where her extended family resides.
The Prince George Open drew 167 entrants from seven northern B.C. clubs, including the three local clubs - Prince George Judo Club, Hart Judo Academy and Northern Capital Judo Club.
