Susan Haas can punch her ticket to the next qualification round for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games with a knockout performance at next week’s national boxing championships.
At the senior elite championships in Nova Scotia, Haas will give it her best shot at representing Canada in the 60-kilogram division when female boxing makes its Olympic debut in London, England.
“This particular nationals has been my goal since 2009,” said the St. Albert boxer. “I’ve been reminding myself this is what it’s been all about. There are days where you would rather do anything than go train, but you make yourself go anyways.”
Haas, 26, is the only boxer from western Canada in her weight category at nationals. The defending champion is Sandra Bizier of Quebec.
“Seven boxers are entered and there are a couple of tough cookies,” Haas said.
The national champion advances to next month’s box-off in Quebec and the winner there has to place in the top eight at the world championships to qualify for the Olympics.
“Someone has to beat Sandra (at nationals). If no one beats Sandra then she doesn’t have to defend her title at box-off because she is the returning champion,” said Haas, the 2011 Canadian champion at 69 kg. “If I win, because I’ve switched divisions, they don’t count the fact that I was a champion last year because it’s a whole new category so at box-off I believe that anyone I have to fight has to beat me twice.
“If the ideal doesn’t happen, which would be beating Sandra, the box-off is for the B team spot to see who would be next up to replace the first champion in case of an injury.”
Haas is confident she will win.
“I’ve been training hard. I’ve been seeing a sports psychologist. I’ve been eating healthier than I ever have before,” said the Cougar Boxing Club fighter. “I’m feeling good but I’m definitely not one of those people that goes around thinking, ‘No problem. I’ve got this.’ I always go around with a healthy amount of respect for my opponent. I train my best, I do my best and the rest is up to God.”
Haas is 45-10 in the ring after posting a 1-1 record in the 69-kg division for Team Canada at the Nikolaev Cup. The third annual European Boxing Confederation women’s event was staged in the Ukraine in September.
The Paul Kane High School alumna pounded out two victories in the 69-km women’s open category at the 11th annual Ringside world championships in Kansas City in August, but admits her preferred fighting weight is 60 kg.
“This will be my first time at 132 pounds (62 kg) since I was quite a bit younger,” Haas said. “I’ve sort of bounced around all over the place and once the Olympic categories were announced it was a done deal and 132 was going to be it.”
She successfully dropped the extra weight in time for nationals.
“Like any boxer, if you stick around long enough you learn all the tricks to cut weight to get down to a certain amount in a short period of time, but you don’t feel good so I started to do it the healthy way,” said the two-time Canadian junior champion and three-time national senior title holder.
Haas also changed her training regimen in preparation for the lower weight category at nationals.
“It’s going to be different. You’re less likely to run into someone who hits like a train, but at the same time this is where you start running into people who have really good speed and that was something I had to get used to,” she said.
“I realized as I was dropping (weight) that I needed to start sparring more with smaller people because you get used to sparring at the speed of your sparring partners. When you’re sparring with people who are 20 pounds heavier than you all the time it doesn’t really contribute to faster reflexes for fighting little people.”
In November the Grant MacEwan University student spent a week and a half training and sparring with some of Canada’s world, provincial and professional champions in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. It was made possible through the City of St. Albert’s Games Legacy Awards Grant program.
“It really helped me a lot to get ready for nationals,” said the recipient of the Barney O’Connor Award as the 2009 athlete of the year in boxing, as selected by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission.
