Euan Burton ready for toughest fight in bid to reach top

Euan Burton will bid to become European judo champion for the first time today and take another step towards Olympic glory in London.

The Scot, 32, had fought his way up to be ranked fourth in the world for the under-81 kilogram division following a string of consistent displays at the major events, which included bronze at both the 2010 European and World Championships.

However, it is the next phase of his progress which Burton accepts may be his hardest fight yet as he looks to make the top of the podium in 2012.

"The higher up you get in anything in life, you are talking about tiny percentages which make the difference, so that means it probably is going to be a huge amount of hard work to get from one of the best to being the best in the world," said Burton. "However, it also takes a massive amount to go from one of the worst in the world to being one of the best, which is where you go from when you first start in a sport and have no idea what you are doing before eventually being world class.

"That, though, is the same with anything - it is very rare people don't put the effort in and get to the top.

"Now, the hard work just becomes a bit more focused, and probably a bit narrower when you get towards the top end."

Judo is a popular sport with youngsters across the country, but few show the dedication needed to progress through to the ranks of the world's elite like Burton. "I did lots of sports when I was a kid, but my mum and dad took me along to judo and it just kind of clicked," he recalled.

"My folks probably took me along because I was pretty shy, and judo is certainly something which helps break down barriers.

"I just loved it, there were a lot of sports which I did through my childhood, but judo was the one I wanted to do every single week. By the time I was 12 or 13 I was taking it pretty seriously, I was already on the Scottish team and then looking to get onto the British team.

"I spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like to be an Olympian and getting to the top of my sport."

Should Burton claim that coveted 2012 Olympic gold medal, the Scot maintains it will be a real team and family effort.

"It has not always been success, success, success. It has been a long road to get to where I am just now, which is towards the top end of judo," said Burton, who was mentored by British Olympic Association director of elite performance Sir Clive Woodward at the Beijing Games in 2008 but could not manage to make the medal fights.

"It is hugely important to have people around you who will support you through the thick and thin.

"If you had asked my mum and dad if they were proud of me when as a kid I was coming off the mat crying after I had not won a medal, or was losing my first fights at World Cup tournaments, then I am sure they were still proud of the way I conducted myself.

"Hopefully I can pay them back with the results I am getting now, and again in London."The International Judo Federation has now moved the World Championships to a yearly competition, with the 2011 event set for Paris at the end of August.

For Burton, though, everything from here on in is just a build-up to when the eyes of the globe with be trained on the Olympic Park in Stratford.

"Having the World Championships every year means every year there is an opportunity to be world champion, the negative spin of that is perhaps a bit of the prestige of the event has been taken away," he said.

"The reason there is so much prestige behind an Olympic Games is that it is only every four years - when you only get that one opportunity, it suddenly becomes a very important test for you."