Big summer ahead for Nash

“I am pretty excited to go up there,” said the 16-year-old son of Brian and Michelle Nash. “There’s a whole bunch of good people to train with up there, so you can only get better.

“It’s going to be a good experience. . . Train with the best to be the best.”

Nash says two areas he wants to focus on while training with the national junior team are strength and technique.

TJC Sensei Chris Townsend noted Canadian junior national team coach JP Cantin invited Nash to train in Montreal.

“This will be a great experience for him to improve his judo game,” said Townsend. “He has put a lot of hard work in over the past few years, and I’m super proud of him.

“It’s not every day someone from judo on P.E.I. gets invited to train full-time with the national junior team.”

The Canada Cup is a new continental Sebastian Nash, left, and George Madumba train during a Summerside Toshidokan Judo Club recent practice. Nash is competing at the Canada Cup tournament in Montreal later this week and will spend six weeks training with the Canadian national junior team this summer.

tournament that will attract more than 600 athletes competing in senior, junior and cadet from 20 countries. Nash will

compete in the under-18, 90-kilogram category.

“It’s a pretty big competition,” acknowledged Nash, who qualified

for the Canada Cup through nationals. “I wanted to do this.

“Nationals and then this are the two biggest tournaments of the year for me. After nationals I started training (for the Canada Cup).”

Nash competed in two divisions at nationals in Calgary. He went 1-2 (won-lost) to finish fifth in the under-18 plus-90-kilogram group, and was 0-2 in under-21 -100 kilograms.

Nash, who has competed in judo for 9 ½ years, said his goals going into the Canada Cup is “win as many fights as I can, and go for gold would be nice.”

Nash will be competing against some familiar opponents.

“There are probably not too many people that I do not know who will be in my division,” he said. “I have beat some of them, and lost to some of them before.”

Nash added there are two individuals who have had a positive impact on his development to where he is today.

“I’m just thankful I have my friend George Madumba training with me, and my Sensei Christopher Townsend really pushes me towards these goals,” continued Nash. “It’s really nice to have them here so I can train with them.”