Gold and goodbye for flag man Euan
EUAN BURTON struck gold for Scotland in judo and announced his fighting days were over.
The veteran was delighted to finish his career in style on the day when his wife won a silver medal for England.
However, he admitted that his triumph in the home Commonwealth Games did little to ease the painofhisfailureatthelastOlympics.
The Edinburgh- based judoka crashed out in the second round during London 2012.
Yesterday he made sure there was no repeat of his shock exit in Glasgow and went all the way in the 100kg.
He said: “I’ve said before and I’ll say again, that this doesn’t make up for London.
“I worked my whole life to be Olympic champion and I fell short.
“I’ve only really worked towards the Commonwealths for the last five months.
“We don’t always get an opportunity in every Commonwealth Games so it isn’t always on our radar.
“The excitement was building all the way up to the tournament and then being flag-bearer was such an honour.
“I suppose it puts a little bit more pressure on you but luckily all the guys on the first day took a bit of the pressure off me because they won so many medals.
“That’s me done and dusted, I’ll never fight a competitive Judo fight again.”
Burton was keen to speak about the rise of judo in Scotland, as well as his personal success.
Hewenton:“I’veplayedmypartas an athlete I’ve been on the coaching staff for two years so I’m very, very proud of the players on the team.
“It’s credit, not just to them — of course they’re the ones who do all the hard work and without them doing the hard work no one gets any medals – but all the people who do so much behind the scenes.”
Burton felt his wife, Gemma Gibbons, would not be completely satisfied with winning a silver.
He said: “I only caught the back end of the fight. Obviously she’ll be massively disappointed.
“She came here for gold and anything less than that is a disappointment for her.”
Gibbons, who lost out to Wales’ Natalie Powell in the Final of the Under-78kg, couldnothideherfrustration and said:“I was just not good enough, I came here for gold. I am disappointed with myself.
“I know that I can still be the best in the country and the world, or I would not still be going to training every day.”
Scotland claimed another gold in the women’s +78kgs heavyweights, where Sarah Adlington edged out England’s Jodie Myers, the British Judo Centre of Excellence fighter, on aYuko.
Adlington, who has just returned from an injury lay-off, said: “The crowd were amazing, to come away with the win is fantastic.
“It is the first time I have fought sinceFebruary, sotocomebackhere and win gold hopefully stands in good stead for the Olympic qualifiers coming up later this year, which I can go into with confidence.”
Royal Marine Chris Sherrington made it a golden end for Scotland when he threw South African Ruan Snyman for two Waza-ari scores to claim the men’s +100kgs title.
Scotland’s judokas won 13 medals in total, which was the host nation’s best single sport return since swimming in Melbourne 2006.