DOB - 14 March 1975
COUNTRY - Great Britain
WEIGHT- U81kg

Graeme Randall became only the second male British judoka, after Neil Adams, to win World Championship gold in 1999. He was also a European Bronze medallist in the same year, as well as well as Commonwealth Champion in 2002. Randall was born in Edinburgh and started judo at the age of 13, winning a bronze medal at the 1994 Junior World Championships.

Randall’s first major senior International accolade came in early 1999 at the European Championships in Bratislava. There, he produced some fantastic judo- the highlight of which being a beautiful Hiza-guruma against Armenian Gevorgian. In the semi-final he was beaten by Nuno Delgado of Portugal after being in the lead. Still, he went on to fight Lithuanian Rimas for the bronze and was able to emerge victorious thanks to two good yukos from Kata-guruma and Ko-soto-gari. A good result, but better was yet to come.

In Birmingham, Randall was a man possessed and looked on fire from the very first round. He quickly disposed of Matti Lattu (FIN) with Morote-seoi-nage before defeating Switzerland’s Sergei Ashwanden with the same technique. In the next round Randall faced an old adversary in the form of Austria’s Patrick Reiter. He later conceded that this was his hardest challenge, nevertheless it was an important mental hurdle for him to overcome. In the quarter-final he countered Seyilhanov of Kazakhstan with a thumping Ko-soto-gake that had the Kazakh completely levelled in mid air.

In the semi-finals he faced the man who had beaten him earlier in the year at the European Championships- Delgado. Delgado had been on the form in the previous rounds but Randall never let him settle, attacking constantly and harassing his opponent before scoring ippon with Kata-guruma. The British crowd were ecstatic, eagerly awaiting the final. When it came it did not disappoint, with both Randall and his Uzbeki opponent attacking and scoring frequently. Then Randall scored waza-ari with a typical Kata-guruma to take the lead, but he had no intention of sitting back and continued to fly at his opponent. Eventually, the Scot was able to knock his opponent down into a hold down just long enough for the clock to tick down and for the World title to be his. “It feels absolutely fantastic “, he said as he left the mat, “I have never felt anything like it before , the crowd was fantastic. With a crowd like that I had to do it for them”

In 2002, Randall had the opportunity to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. One of the biggest factors running through this competition is that it broke up the usual GBR representatives into their individual nations, and so added an Anglo-Scottish rivalry into the equation. Here both England’s Thomas Cousins and Luke Preston of Wales were vying for the chance to meet the Scot in the final. It was Cousins who got that chance. However, there was more than just Scotland versus England at stake- at the time Cousins was also looking to challenge Randall’s dominance at under 81kg for Great Britain. With both fighters locked at keikoku a piece, Randall produced a flash of brilliance. He levelled Cousins with a Ko-soto-gari that had the Englishman a foot from the ground before he hit down with a resounding thump. Randall’s emotions came pouring out as he let out a tremendous roar of victory, “You could see how emotional I was representing Scotland”, he said afterwards, “I just can’t describe it”. When asked how it felt to beat an Englishman in the final he responded, “Needless to say, that tasted sweet”.