LEADING Scottish judoka, including Olympic bronze medallist Sally Conway, will be told they will lose their Lottery funding if they reject British Judo’s demands that they relocate from Ratho to the sport’s centre of excellence in Walsall by March next year.

The no-compromise stance comes as performance chiefs prepare to sit down with their senior fighters over the next three weeks to draw up a route map towards Tokyo 2020 with Conway, the sole medallist in Rio, among those about to embark on another Games cycle.

With Scotland declining the opportunity to put Ratho forward as an option for the upgraded central hub, she and others currently based at Judo Scotland’s highly-regarded facility near Edinburgh will be handed a three-month window to make the move south or be axed from the world-class programme and all the financial and logistical backing it offers.

“We are going to create one system but two pathways,” British Judo’s performance director Nigel Donohue told Herald Sport. “One will be the world-class programme which will be fully funded and fully supported. And if athletes choose not to be part of that, they have the option to self-fund.

"There will be an open policy where they can still qualify for European and world championships and we will cover the cost of going to that. And they can still qualify for the Olympic Games. But it’s about making the choice over what programme they want to be part of.

“This is not about any individual athlete. It is about building a system for British Judo. If we don’t build a system for the sport, we won’t have consistent success at Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is long-term – 2020, 2024 and beyond. If we try to develop individual programmes for individual athletes, we’ll get nowhere.”

With upcoming coaches such as former Olympian Evan Burton set to stay at Ratho, a home nation pyramid will be established to nurture grassroots talent at existing hubs with its staff offered opportunities to remain involved at major events. However, there is dismay in Scottish sporting circles that the downgrading of Ratho, whose first-rate facilities attracted leading judoka from across the UK, will further diminish a system that allows only one British high performance centre – in the shape of curling – operate north of the border.

“It means we can put all our resources together in terms of coaching and sports medicine,” Donohue said. “We also want the athletes going around the world to various training bases and giving them a top-class competition programme.

"And with everyone together, we can make sure the training is of the highest level. We are going to do that and we’re in the process of talking that through with all the athletes."