Burton does the double to prolong Indian summer

At the age of 34 and stepping up two weight categories after last year's Olympics, he captured the European Open under-100kg title at the Emirates Arena yesterday. He beat GB team-mate and World Junior medallist Ben Fletcher, from Wokingham, with a choke for ippon in the final and was presented with his gold medal by his wife and London 2012 silver medallist Gemma Gibbons, who was part of the official presentation party.

Burton's triumph followed hard on the heels of his victory at last month's European Cup in Belgrade -where he was the second-oldest judoka to take a title - and this was significant, because the event was staged in Glasgow, host of next year's Commonwealth Games.

Since coming back to international competition, he has now won two gold medals as well as placing fifth.

"This is a level above the two European Cups I've fought in recently," Burton said. "It's nice to do it in Glasgow - if I do make it here next year, it's good experience. There's a bit more pressure fighting here. I'm still focusing on coaching more than fighting but, when you walk out into the stadium, no-one cares. You have to win.

"I've fought Ben a few times in training but it's been more of a fun practice as he's been a couple of weights above me. More recently, I fought him at British squad training a couple of weeks ago and it was a much harder practice as I think he realised there was a potential we could meet here.

"It was a little bit embarrassing when Gemma presented me with the medal but she told me that they made her do it! She's not the type who would be that desperate to present me with a medal."

Burton won both of his pool matches, beating Andrew Jacobs (USA) and Jorge Fonseca (Portugal), and reached final by ippon with a waza-ari throw over Australian under-21 champion Elijah Shuumans.

Great Britain won five medals at the event, four of the medallists being part of the Judo Scotland training regime at Ratho. Norfolk's Colin Oates, who has recently moved north to join the set-up, won gold at under-66kg level. He beat Belgium's Jesper Lefevre by ippon in Saturday's final to take the title and set the Team GB standard.

James Austin, who also hopes to compete for Scotland at Glasgow 2014, had to be content with seventh place in the same weight category after being thrown for ippon by Fonseca in the repechage.

But there was a bronze for Scotland's Matt Purssey in the under-90kg event. He lost to Italian Giuliano Loporchio in the semi-finals and faced GB team-mate Michael Horley for bronze.

Purssey won the contest with 50 seconds left with a waza-ari throw to take his medal. "I could and should have reached the final, but I made a couple of mistakes and hopefully I can learn from that," he said.

In the heavyweight class, Edinburgh's Chris Sherrington lost his bronze medal contest to Jan Pinta (Czech Republic) by an ippon arm-lock with three minutes remaining. The Edinburgh player, who lost to Pierre Alexandre Robin (France) in his pool, finished fifth.

On Saturday, Edinburgh's Patrick Dawson missed out on a semi-final place in the under-73kg when he lost to eventual winner, Italian Marco Maddaloni. Dawson had to settle for seventh place overall after losing in the repechage to Israel's Tomer Zakheim by ippon.

He suffered an injury to his left eye early in the contest but refused to use it as an excuse. "The injury didn't really affect me but it's a bit disappointing to lose," Dawson said afterwards. "It's annoying because I've beaten him twice in the past. I did not have long to recover between fights but that's what happens when you lose. It wasn't my fitness that let me down today, it was my judo."

Edinburgh's Sarah Adlington also struck gold at the women's European Open in Rome as she builds towards London 2012. Adlington won the heavyweight title beating Italian Taniya Ferrera in the final to triumph. Tain's Connie Ramsay fought her way to a bronze medal in the under-57kg, beating Cindy Huber, of France, by ippon.