Great Britain will embark on the Asian leg of the IJF World Circuit next month, with selected players competing in the Korean World Cup and Tokyo Grand Slam.

The British delegation will travel out to Seoul at the end of November ahead of the Korean World Cup, taking place in Suwon from 3-4 December and then on onto Tokyo for the Grand Slam.

Both events are part of the IJF World Circuit and with ranking points up for grabs the Brits will be out to impress 15 months out of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Just last month Performance Director Margaret Hicks told Press Association Sport, "We are coming to the stage now where we need to focus our higher-level resources on a smaller group to have more impact."

British Judo’s Head Coach Patrick Roux has made a focused selection for this final block in the year and said, “We have a group of players who are connected to the World Cup level and with those selected for Korea and/or Tokyo, we are now looking for consistency of performance and medals – this is a progressive pathway and we are now being more selective.”

Selected to compete in the Korean World Cup is a ten-strong British team.

In the men’s competition Brits Ashley McKenzie (-60kg), Colin Oates (-66kg), Winston Gordon (-90kg) and James Austin (-100kg) will fight.

Gordon showed he has recovered well from a knee injury that kept him out of competition for 10 months after recently winning a silver medal at the 2010 Rome World Cup. The two-time Olympian will be a strong contender in the -90kg weight category.

GB’s women’s team include Sophie Cox (-52kg), Gemma Howell (-57kg), Faith Pitman (-63kg), Gemma Gibbons (-70kg), Sally Conway (-70kg) and Sarah Adlington (+78kg).

After a five year break, Cox’s return to competition is proving to be successful after she picked up her first GB World Cup medal at the National Indoor Area in October. Cox will be looking to gain some ranking points in Korea, as she begins her climb from her current placing at 59th.

Going straight into the Korean Training Camp that follows the World Cup, the players will get to train alongside the elite Korean squad and many other big judo nations as the build up to the Grand Slam in Tokyo begins.

The 2010 Tokyo Grand Slam, running from the 11-13 December, will see a 12-strong British team take to the mat.

Returning to defend his 2009 Tokyo Grand Slam title is Euan Burton in the -81kg weight category, alongside Colin Oates, Winston Gordon, Ashley McKenzie and James Austin in the men's competition.

Euan recently said in his Matside magazine column, “I hope to defend my title at the Tokyo Grand Slam and then go for Masters glory in January 2011 so there is, as always, plenty of hard graft to be done.”

Competing for GB in the women’s competition are Karina Bryant and Sarah Adlington in the +78kg weight category, plus Sophie Cox, Gemma Howell, Faith Pitman, Gemma Gibbons, Sally Conway in their respective weight categories.

Both highly regarded +78kg players, Bryant the established fighter and Adlington the emerging judoka, will benefit from the high quality of competition the event attracts, as will the rest of the British team taking to the mat.

© David Finch

Euan Burton (white) at the 2009 Tokyo Grand Slam