ROCKING AND ROARING: OUR COMMONWEALTH GAMES HEROES

Striking gold was great but judo hero proud he is now a full-time Royal Marine

It has been a very interesting year since Glasgow 2014. times have changed. I have returned to t he Marines and l eft j udo behind. I’m pretty much back in ‘role’ now. I’m ready to rock and roll — I’m ready to do my job wherever they need me. If a job came up that put me down on the ground, I would take it.

I’ve been trained to do a job and I enjoy my job. It might not be the safest job for me but the way I look at it is, if I don’t do this job, someone will have to.

If I can keep people safe in my country, then I will. If a chance comes and I can save someone’s life at the price of my own, then I will do that. I’ve already signed on the dotted line... If something did happen to me, at 31, I’ve certainly lived a life. It’s been a good one.

the lads have been brilliant since I returned — there have been some fun nights out. It has been great to come back to a lifestyle where I know I’m going to get holidays and I know weekends are my own.

It’s been really good to come back to the boys. I’m really enjoying myself. I’ve done quite a bit of soldiering, a l ot of exercises and mountain t r aining — t ypical marine stuff.

Well, it’s typical f or t he average marine but I had been away a long t i me, a bout 10 years, doing judo.

I’m not in Scotland any more. I’m based in Barnstaple, although I am trying to get back up north. they’re just trying to decide what to do with me at the moment.

Every two weeks I go home to see my wife, Zoe, and I’m not enjoying the trek, to be honest. It’s 11 hours each way. It’s pretty heavy — I’m not going to lie!

that is one of the things about the Marines, you don’t choose where you go. they decide.

But it’s nice being back with the lads for the banter. It really is the biggest boys-only club in the world. It’s a real closed-door experience — you need to be part of it to realise how special it is. the whole armed forces, we’re all just one big family.

the lads love what I’ve done at t he Olympics and t he Commonwealth Games. they understand the pain and the sacrifice I’ve been through to get the Marines up to that position.

It really has been an amazing 10 years, finishing on the biggest high you could imagine.

I retired not l ong after the Games. I had my best results of my career just before the Games. I beat the world No 2 and then took a Grand Prix silver medal.

to be honest, I never hit my peak. My 10th year would probably have seen me hit my best form.

I could have continued with the judo for another two years but you have to have a look at life as a whole.

It wasn’t going to help my Marines career — none of the time spent doing judo helped my career.

I’ve come back and a lot of the guys I was serving with 10 years ago are now sergeants or officers. they have all moved on and I’m still marking time. I needed to come back and sort my career out. I needed to do the job I’ve loved and missed for years. I mean, sometimes I do think about what would have happened if I had carried on until Rio. But after the Games, nothing was going to match that. In my eyes, I was given a sports draft by the Marines, which not many people get. It was then my job to give them the PR that the corp deserves. We’ve got many people wounded, mentally strained, and I feel like what I was doing was supporting them. What I did will be r e pl ay e d again and again — and it will always be ‘ Royal Marine’ Chris Sherrington. I remember going up to get my medal and the English, Scottish and Welsh squads saluted me. I like to think I won the hearts and minds. that was an emotional moment — it will stay with me forever.