Euan Burton insists Britain’s judo players have to seize the moment at the forthcoming Grand Prix events in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as they look to step up their bid to make the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Following on from the recent Glasgow and Lisbon European Opens, attention now turns to the International Judo Federation World Tour, which carries even more ranking points towards the Olympic Games in just two years time.
Britain’s women came away from Glasgow last weekend with four medals including gold for Sally Conway and Gemma Howell while Frazer Chamberlain and Andrew Burns also won silver and bronze respectively in Lisbon.
The team will be aiming to build on those performances with the Astana Grand Prix in Kazakhstan from October 10-12 before a second Grand Prix in Tashkent, Uzbekistan the weekend after.
And Burton, who won gold at the Commonwealth Games this summer, will be involved with the team for his first international coaching appointment since retiring after Glasgow 2014.
“The Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan Grand Prix events are the latest stage of the IJF World Tour and all of the athletes in attendance will be looking to secure valuable World Ranking and Olympic qualification points,” said Burton, who competed for Team GB at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
“There is a good mix of youth and experience within the GB team attending the events and they will all be looking forward to stepping out onto the mat and mixing it with the world’s best.”
© Sportsbeat 2014