The martial arts attract a tremendous following, as its devotees strive to emulate the discipline and dedication of their heroes.

The founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, was born in 1860 and after studying ju-jutsu for several years, he opened his own small school in 1883, teaching his analysis of ju-jutsu - Kano judo.

The first attempt to set up a judo school in Britain was by Mr E W Barton Wright, who sponsored a visit by a team of Japanese Judo experts in 1899. This failed and the team members took to staging exhibition matches around the country. It wasn't until 1920 when one of the original members of the team, Yukio Tani, was approached by a man called Gunji Koizumi to be chief instructor in a new club intended to study the disciplines of 'the samurai'. This school was to become one of the most famous outside of Japan.

Judo's popularity grew and on 24 July 1948 the British Judo Association (BJA) was established.

Judo appeared in the Commonwealth Games in 1990, its only appearance to date and England took home all but two of the sixteen gold medals up for grabs at that time (with Auckland, the host country, and Scotland grasping the other two).

Competition is likely to be fierce. Can England pull off such an impressive feat this time?