Facing a field which included the world's top 16 judoka, the 32-year-old repeated his performance at last year's World Masters in the -81kg category to strengthen his prospects of being one of the seeded top eight competitors at this summer's Olympics.

"This result really makes it possible for Euan to be seeded at the Olympic Games and that's the most important thing for him, to be positioned in the top eight in the world ranking list," said Daniel Lascau, the British Judo performance director.

In the first round the two-time world bronze medallist defeated GB World Cup winner Axel Clerget of France by ippon.

Burton followed up by edging 2009 world champion Ivan Nifontov of Russia by yuko.

In the semi-final the British judoka narrowly lost out by yuko to reigning world and Olympic champion Elnur Mammadli of Azerbaijan, who went on to win gold.

The defeat saw Burton take bronze as there is no repechage system in place at the Masters or Grand Slam events.

The hard-fought result earned the Briton 160 world ranking points as he continues to work towards a top-eight position.

In the +78kg category Britain's Karina Bryant (pictured right), 32, started out by defeating Mexican Vanessa Zambotti (left), who beat her at the Beijing Games, by ippon.

In the second round the five-time world silver medallist lost out by yuko and then ippon to three-time world silver medallist and eventual gold medallist Qian Qin of China.

The fifth-place result saw Bryant receive 80 world ranking points.

"I was very pleased to see Karina win her first fight and she needs a little more time to win medals at these events but we're making progress and know these results are very realistic," Lascau added.

Both Burton, in the -90kg, and Bryant will be in action at the 2012 British Closed Championships being held at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Sheffield on Sunday (January 22).

Of the 27-strong Olympic Squad, 22 judoka will be in action including Kelly Edwards and Kimberley Renicks who will both compete in the -48kg field.

Junior world bronze medallist Hayley Willis, 16, will also compete in the -48kg field as she fights in the Junior Closed Championships on the Saturday and Senior Closed event on the Sunday.

European and Olympic test event bronze medallist Sophie Cox will battle at -52kg, while Connie Ramsey competes in the -57kg category.

Faith Pitman takes to the -63kg field along with Athens and Beijing Olympian Sarah Clark.

Sally Conway, Gemma Gibbons and Megan Fletcher all compete in the -70kg field, while Sarah Adlington and Amsterdam Grand Prix bronze medallist Bryant – a three-time Olympian – see action at +78kg.

GB World Cup gold medallist Ashley McKenzie and James Millar feature in the -60kg category with European bronze medallist Colin Oates (pictured) fighting at -66kg.

Danny Williams competes at -73kg while Tom Reed takes to the -81kg category.

Beijing Olympian Burton will compete in the -90kg field as he will have seen action and made the -81kg weight for the IJF Masters in Kazakhstan the previous weekend on Saturday 14 January.

Olympic test event bronze medallist Matthew Purssey and Mike Horley feature at -90kg, while GB World Cup bronze medallist James Austin takes on the -100kg category.

Chris Sherrington completes the Olympic squad delegation at +100kg.

Tickets can be purchased on the day only at EIS, Sheffield from the British Judo Association (BJA) ticket desk.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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April 2010: Burton takes third European judo bronze