The standards that judoka Euan Burton has set himself were underlined at last month’s World Championships in Tokyo, where he was genuinely disappointed not to strike gold in the Under-81kg event.

A bronze medal - his second at a World Championship - added to the three bronze medals he has taken at European Championships.

The Edinburgh player, now 31, felt it was more fatigue than anything that cost him a world title after an expanded competition which allowed two competitors from each country in each weight category led to a punishing and unprecedented schedule.

But, if there is one thing Burton has learned during his career, it is that barriers have to be overcome to be successful.

Before training daily at the state-of-the-art centre at Ratho where there are regularly 35 players working out, he had to make do with training in a church hall in Leith but, such was the standard of coaching, that the cream of British judo found their way to the club. 

“Before we were down in the church hall in Leith, George Kerr let us use his facility at Hillside Street. That’s where I was first based, at the Edinburgh club,” Burton says.

“He is one of only seven people to have been awarded his 10th Dan. I think he was the first non-Japanese to have been given the honour and I think he’s only of only three living 10th Dans.

“He’s had a massive influence on the sport here and is probably respected more outside Scotland than here. People forge their own path and people before us have opened doors. “As a young athlete, you probably don’t understand but when you get older you realise that it’s what people have done before you that allows you to be in the place you are. 

“Had George not gone to Japan for a few years and forged a link with Japanese coaches and then done the work as a coach and then a businessman, the state of Scottish judo would be completely different.”

Burton admits he would give up all of his World and European medals for gold in London in two years time after the disappointment of the last Olympics in Beijing where he was not fully fit. 

“Before Beijing I had a problem in my shoulder and we found out I had a cyst in my shoulder which came about because I tore something in my rotator cuff,” he explains.

“As the cyst got bigger, it affected the nerves on my neck and gave me referred pain through my arm.

“They couldn’t operate before Beijing because it would mean six to nine months out of the sport and it was too close to risk that. I had the cyst removed after that and that kept me off the mat for a few months late 2008 and early 2009.

“It was probably a good thing as it gives you the hunger back. It’s very frustrating at the time but, if you’re going to have time off, the best time is after the biggest event every four years.

“If you’re going to go hard for the next four years, it’s probably not a bad time to recharge the batteries.

“The way I see it, an injury is a chance to come back stronger not come back weaker. It also gave me an opportunity to analyse my judo.

“It sounds ridiculous when you’re full-time job is to be a judo player but sometimes you don’t have time to step back and break it down to basics as you’re just chasing tournament after tournament. You don’t have the time between tournaments to break it all down.

“I would rather be training that anything else but as you get older as a sportsperson you realise success comes down to maximising the times when you’re fit but also manage the times when you’re not fully fit.

“If you just get depressed and say you can’t do anything, then you don’t make gains and you’re further back when you do get back on the mat.” 

Evidence that he came back stronger was provided at last December’s Grand Slam in Tokyo where he struck gold, the only non-Asian man to have won the middleweight category.

“European judo is so strong – France, Germany, Spain Portugal, Russia and all the ex-Soviet states – that to be the only man to win it outside of Asia is a big deal,” he stresses.

“The crowd don’t expect it in Tokyo but they also appreciate that their sport has expanded so much that it is now a massive world-wide sport.”

RM

© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMX, All Rights Reserved