BILLINGE-born Royal Marine Chris Sherrington from Arbroath’s 45 Commando has been selected to represent Great Britain in judo at the London 2012 Olympic Games, competing in the men’s +100kg category.

Currently ranked 52nd in the world, 28-year-old Chris, will be the first heavyweight in 20 years to represent Great Britain at any Olympic Games.

Chris said: “I’m naturally delighted to be selected for the Great Britain Olympic judo team for 2012.

“This is the best achievement of my career in judo and will surely be an experience I’ll never forget.

“I've been building up to this with high hopes for eight years so it’s an amazing feeling for the dream to come true”.

Originally from Billinge, but now living in Broxburn, West Lothian, Chris is currently on a full-time judo sports draft, training at Ratho near Edinburgh.

He joined the Royal Marines when he was 17-years-old and started his competition judo career at 21.

He qualified for the British Trials that year and by the end of the competition was ranked third in Britain.

The Royal Marines became aware of his triumph in Judo and the next year offered Chris a full time sports draft.

With only six months full-time training under his belt he competed again at the British trials, winning it and becoming the best +100kg judo player in Britain.

Chris was three times GB Champion and two times British Open Champion and continued his impressive performance, with the Royal Marines and Royal Navy continuing to support him on his sports draft.

He continued to hone his skills before an unfortunate spell of injury, spending most of 2009/10 recovering from four operations.

However, in November 2011 Chris took the Gold medal at the World Cup in Samoa.

That qualified him for selection to be considered for the 2012 London judo Olympic team.