Judo: Judokas end year on high

Edinburgh’s Euan Burton and Sarah Adlington are already looking ahead to next summer’s London Olympics after both ended their year on a promising note by finishing fifth at the Qingdao Judo Grand Prix in China.

Burton has endured a wretched run of results in 2011, but the former world 81kg medallist looked more like his old self in Tokyo last week and improved again in China as he beat Mongolia’s Uuganbaatar Otgonbaatar and Argentina’s Emmanuel Lucenti, before losing the Pool B final to the eventual bronze medallist Ivan Nifontov of Russia.

Adlington reached the same stage in yesterday’s 78kg class but was unable to get past silver medallist Qian Qin of China.