Judo Olympian Burton takes up Scots coaching role

Double Olympian Euan Burton is looking to inspire the next generation of judo stars after taking up a leading coaching role within the sport.

The Edinburgh athlete, who competed at both the Beijing and London Games, has joined the sportscotland institute of sport as Assistant High Performance Judo Coach and will be based at JudoScotland’s National Training Centre in Ratho.

Burton, who won two World Championship and three European Championship medals, said: “I am really looking forward to the challenge. We have a fantastic coaching and support team at the institute and some talented and extremely hard working athletes who it will be a pleasure to work with.”

David Somerville, National High Performance Judo Coach at the institute, said: The judo programme is extremely excited to welcome Euan on to the coaching team moving towards Glasgow and on to Rio. He will be a real asset to what is already an excellent team.”

Although Burton’s main focus will now be on coaching, he has not ruled out ending his competitive career at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The 33-year-old hit the headlines during the London Olympics after giving an emotional interview in the wake of his first-round defeat to Antoine Valois-Fortier of Canada. Reflecting on the disappointment, he said: “I’m not fuelled by my failure at the Olympics, but by my love for judo. I want to do the best job I can as a coach, which was how I approached being an athlete, so I will definitely take that mindset into this new role. With the many positives I have had as a competitor, I will hopefully be able to replicate some of these experiences with the guys that I’m coaching.”