Euan Burton's most candid of interviews as his Olympic dream crashed was one of the enduring images of London 2012.
The passing of his final chance to win an Olympic medal after a near-lifetime in the sport - and for his part to be cut short to barely two minutes (he lost to Canadian Antoine Valois-Fortier in the second round after a first-round bye) - brought out some raw emotions.
"I can't take any positives," he said then. "I feel like I've let myself down a bit. I feel like I've let my coaches down, anyone I've ever trained with. I've let my mum, my dad and my brother down. I've been working for this for over a quarter of a century, so no, there's no positives to be taken."
The support he received via Twitter in the warm-down area at the ExCel Arena after the interview had aired reduced him to tears. This is a judoka who wears his heart on his judogi.
There were contrasting emotions a couple of days later when girlfriend (and now wife) Gemma Gibbons won a silver medal, Great Britain's first for 12 years. After the Olympics, Burton told GB Judo that he did not want to be considered for international selection in future and he would throw himself into coaching in the following months.
He has still not fully made up his mind on whether he will compete for Scotland at next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow but the temptation will surely prove too great, certainly after events on Sunday. Burton, at 34-and-a-half, became the second oldest man to win a European Cup title when he struck gold at under-100kg level in Belgrade, winning all four of his fights.
Dutchman Mark Huizinga was a few months older when he won the German Open in Braunschweig, Germany, in 2008, beating Burton in the final.
Having won two World Championship bronze medals and three European Championship bronze at under-81kg level, it is at under-100kg that Burton is hoping for an Indian summer to his career.
"I'm still not sure on Commonwealths. Just testing out how I could do at under-100kg," he explained before catching a flight home yesterday evening.
"It's tough as I only weigh 89-90kg but we have good under-90kg guys and I couldn't give my job the focus it deserves if I was trying to make weight for under-81kg so under-100kg is an option I am thinking about. I have now won European events at under-81kg, under-90kg and under-100kg so it was a nice boost."
Burton's priority on the trip to Serbia was to look after some of the lightweights he has been coaching at Ratho and taking part himself was something of an afterthought.
"I was coaching on the trip but as we only had lightweights at the event and the lightweights fight on Saturday I had the opportunity to fight myself on the Sunday," he went on.
"If we had any heavyweights fighting on the Sunday then I would have focused on coaching those players and not fought."
Burton will miss the European Open at the Emirates Arena later this month but clearly Glasgow 2014 is at the back of his mind "The only reason for fighting at under-100kg is potentially to win a medal for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games," he said.
At this late stage in his career, Burton is still discovering things about himself and knows there is no point on dwelling on his final Olympics as a competitor.
"I don't have any memories of the day I fought, really," he said. "I think subconsciously I have blocked the whole day out. My real memories of London mostly revolve around Gemma and what she did."
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