James Millar narrowly missed out on competing at the Beijing Olympics so needs no motivation ahead of London 2012.

Craig Fallon, the only British man other than Neil Adams to simultaneously hold World and European titles, just edged him out of the British team.

Millar, originally from Invergordon but who is based full-time at the Edinburgh club in Ratho, knows the next four years will shape his judo career. 

As well as building towards London, there is the small matter of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, when judo returns to the fold after missing out in Delhi this year.

“It was a close battle with Craig Fallon for Beijing,” Millar, 29, recalls, “We’d both made qualifying criteria but, unfortunately, he finished one place above me – not by much – but that’s the way it goes. If it was any other sport, both of us could have gone but only one of us could fight at the one weight.

“It was a hard pill to swallow but life goes on. It makes me more determined to make London 2012. I wouldn’t allow myself to have that sort of disappointment twice in my life.”

Millar is part of the Scottish contingent who will compete at this month’s World Championships in Tokyo and is eager to make an impression.

“I’ve had a few decent results over the past year-and-a-half. My performances have dipped recently but I feel my training has picked up a bit and hopefully the World Championships will be the catalyst I need to look forward.

“My main aim is to get a medal and I’d certainly like to get into the top five at least. As much as it’s a major championships, for me it’s a stepping-stone for 2012. To get to London you have to make sure you get results at these sort of competitions.”

Millar is pleased that the Ratho centre has now been made an official training base for the Great Britain team.

There was talk that the Scottish-based players would have to move to Dartford to further their Olympic ambitions but, earlier this summer, British Judo announced that Ratho had also won approval.

With so many top Scots at the centre and even top English players like Sally Conway and Sarah Adlington based in Edinburgh, it made sense.

Why does Millar believe that the Edinburgh club, which grew out of a church hall in Leith, has been so spectacularly successful?

“It’s just down to the atmosphere we create in the training venue,” he argues, “We strive for excellence and try and aim as high as we can and push ourselves towards that. Those that feel they don’t match up to that, they always fall away.

“So we always get the top end and we attract the best players from all over Britain.

“When we were based in a church hall in Leith, we still attracted the top players. So, now, with the facilities we have here and the full-time dojo, we can offer so much more to more players and we’re only going to get better as time goes on.

“For the money that Judo Scotland and the institute have put in, I think it was quite unrealistic to ask us to move down to Dartford.

“It’s good we’ve been recognised as a performance institute and it’s a good step forward.” 

Millar certainly made the right choice after a long apprenticeship in the sport which involved putting in the miles as a junior based in the north of Scotland.

“There were quite a few clubs around but training venues were quite diverse and I had to travel around quite a lot,” he explains, “I had to travel for three or four hours just to get to Scottish tournaments, let alone British Championships and competitions in England. It was quite tough going and I was just grateful to my parents who were enthusiastic about my judo. I have a lot of respect for them.

“I always enjoyed judo and that was the main thing for me. I never made the British junior team or the cadet team and I was quite a late developer.

“I have quite a good work ethic. I enjoy training and being around everyone at the club and it’s what I want to do. 

“I came down here at 18 and started training with Billy Cusack and it developed from there. I kept pushing myself and kept being pushed and to be training in an environment with world-class partners was quite humbling.

“I just got better and better and everything started to click into place. Now I just want to take it as far as I can.”

RM

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