Euan Burton stormed to an incredible gold medal in the -81kgs category of the 2009 Tokyo Grand Slam.

The three day tournament, held on December 11-13, was totally dominated by the home nation, with Japan taking an incredible 11 of the 14 gold medals available.

But, it was Great Britain's Burton, on the second day of judo, that caused one of the biggest stirs, blasting his way through the preliminaries before beating the best of the Japanese in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and the Olympic silver medallist in the final.

In the last eight, against the Japanese number one – Masahiko Tomouchi – Burton controlled his dangerous opponent and went through after scoring Yuko with a Sumi-gaeshi.

The in-form Katsushi Matsumoto was waiting for Burton in the semi-finals. The contest was a tactical battle and went right down to the wire, with both fighters on two shidos. With two seconds to go Burton threw himself forward, latching onto Matsumoto with Osoto make-komi and burying him for Ippon.

Against Jae-bum Kim, one of the best performers on the world circuit this year and the world number two, Burton surpassed all expectation. The fight was an absolute classic, with penalties and scores swaying one way then the other.

With just over a minute to go, Burton was losing by a Waza-ari and Yuko to his solitary Yuko. This is when the Brit took the fight by the scruff of the neck. Burton tied up Kim's arm and threw with his Tokui-waza – Harai make-komi – scoring Waza-ari and levelling the contest.

But Burton wasn’t finished here. He chased the Korean into Newaza, and in a remarkable groundwork sequence that went into Osaekomi on three separate occasions, Burton eventually pinned Kim for Ippon.

“This tournament was one of my targets for the season,” said Burton afterwards. “ After the World Championships, this is the biggest tournament, so it was easy to train hard.”

“I was against the best technical fighters from Japan and Korea. I fought hard all the time.”

In the -60kg, -57kg and +78kg categories Ashley McKenzie, Sarah Clark and Karina Bryant all took well-deserved fifth places.

McKenzie's first contest was against, perhaps, the most in-form fighter in world judo, Ukraine's 2009 World Champion Georgii Zantaraia. Zantaraia had dumped the Brit out of the worlds in the first round. But here he stood no chance against a rampant McKenzie, who threw him for two Waza-aris within two minutes.

After throwing Latvia's Andrejs Magers for Ippon, McKenzie came unstuck against the eventual winner – Masaaki Fukuoka (JPN) – who threw him for Ippon.

Clark got off to a blistering start, throwing Paulina Zawadzka (POL) and Huihui Feng (CHN) for Ippon, before meeting Japan's Kaori Matsumoto in the last eight. Matsumoto beat Clark by a shido in the World Championships in August. Here in Tokyo, it was another close contest. With Clark down by a penalty, she had to push forward, and with just 15 seconds left Matsumoto caught her in newaza and held her for Ippon.

Bryant, meanwhile, maintained her consistency at the top level, beating Zarina Abdrassulova (KAZ) and medal hopeful Carola Uilenhoed (NED) in the preliminaries. Unfortunately, she lost by Hansoku-make in the quarter-finals.

Burton's gold medal, along with the three fifth places, put Team GB third on the overall medal table after Japan and Korea.

Report by Danny Hicks

© Tamas Zahonyi

Euan Burton (White) in the -81kg Tokyo Grand Slam final

Media Contact:

Nicola Turner

British Judo Association

(t) 07854 244343

nicola.turner@britishjudo.org.uk