London 2012 Olympics: Euan Burton beats himself up after swift defeat

EUAN Burton has fought his way to major titles before, and he was sure he was going into yesterday’s under-81kg competition in the shape to do so again.

Instead, the Scottish judoka lasted less than two minutes before losing his first fight after falling prey to a lightning-quick throw from Canadian opponent Antoine Valois-Fortier.

It was a bitter blow for the 33-year-old, who was seventh in the Beijing Olympics four years ago, and he did not try to hide his disappointment in a tearful interview live on television just minutes after his defeat. “I feel like I’ve let myself down, I’ve let my mum and dad down, I feel like I’ve let everybody I’ve ever trained with down,” he said.

Speaking to the press immediately afterwards, Burton praised his opponent for the style in which he had won the encounter. But he also made it plain that he took no solace at all from the quality shown by Valois-Fortier.

“It’s tough to take,” he said. “It’s a loss in the biggest tournament in the world, the biggest tournament Britain is ever going to see in my lifetime. That’s judo, and people can get caught quickly. I’ve caught people quickly in the past and they’ve caught me.

“The fight was even up until that point, but I felt in myself that I could dominate the fight. I didn’t feel any 
particular threat up until then, but it was a beautiful bit of judo.

“If I say it was a mistake, I’m doing him a disservice. He caught me with a beautiful bit of judo. I think, come 2016, he’ll be top ten in the world. We’ll have to wait and see what he does today, but it’s not me at the top of the rostrum and that’s the only result I was interested in.”

Valois-Fortier in fact ended up with a bronze medal. Kim Jae-Bum of South Korea took gold, and Ole Bischof of 
Germany won silver.

Burton continued: “He had disposed of the Olympic champion [Elnur 
Mammadli, in the preliminary round – for which Burton got a bye] and pretty much disposed of me there. I can’t take away any positives from this experience whatsoever.”

No positives, perhaps, but there was some consolation for Burton in the knowledge that he had put everything into preparing for this tournament.

“I felt perfect. I felt fantastic. Preparation couldn’t really have gone any 
better, and that’s probably the most 
disappointing thing,” he said.

“If I’d had poor preparation, if things hadn’t gone well, if I’d had injuries, or problems with the weight, then I could use any of these things as excuses. There’s no excuse. I was in the best shape of my life. I’ve been working for this for over a quarter of a century and I’m pretty sure you won’t see me in Rio in 2016.

“I wish I could have done a bit more for the people that came down to watch, and I’ve got a friend who came all the way from Australia. I felt great 
in the warm-up area and that the 
tournament was mine for the taking. I know the reason they came down was to see me on the medal rostrum and 
I’m really sorry for that.

“I knew I had a chance. I knew I could take it. And I’ve not taken it.” Asked how he deals with such a 
devastating defeat, he continued: “You deal with it knowing you’ve done that [prepared as well as possible]. If I’d come off the mat thinking that these last 
couple of years I’d not trained as hard as I could, then I’d probably be completely inconsolable.

“The rest of my life would be a misery, because I would walk 
away knowing I had a chance to make something of myself and didn’t do 
everything that I could.

“But I’ve done everything I possibly could. I’m disappointed for myself, but I’m more gutted for everybody else. I can live with the fact that I put everything into training and tried to be the best judo player ever, which is Olympic champion.” The first European ever to win the Tokyo Grand Slam, a title that he 
took two years ago, Burton will 
remain in London to support his 
team-mates – among them partner Sally Conway, who fights tomorrow at under-70kg.

“I’ll be here warming up James Austin, and my girlfriend’s fighting on Thursday as well,” said Burton. “Hopefully that day’s a bit more successful than this one has been.”

Burton’s candid assessment of his fight drew praise from other athletes, – among them Lewis Moody, a member of the England rugby union team which won the World Cup in 2003.

“Gutted for Euan Burton, devastated by his loss,” Moody said. “Sport is cruel but he was honest and emotional in 
appraisal of his performance.”