British Judo will offer free entry to the 2012 National Team Championships, the National Governing Body’s final event before the Olympic Games, on Saturday 7 July at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

The one-day team showpiece is widely regarded as one of the most atmospheric and competitive events in the country with pride and glory on the line as a host of British internationals and Rio 2016 hopefuls take to the tatami.

London, Scotland and the Midlands have entered teams along with the Western, Southern, North West, Eastern, National Home Counties areas and the Combined Services.

The junior boys team will feature 11 judoka, junior girls will comprise of nine athletes while the senior categories will be five-strong.

Entries include reigning Commonwealth Championship bronze medallist Lee Shinkin who represents London with Junior World bronze medallist and British Closed Junior and Senior champion Hayley Willis in the capital’s junior women’s team.

Scotland look certain to be in medal contention with talent-laden teams right across the board including a senior men’s team of James Millar, Patrick Dawson, Iain Feenan, Matthew Purssey and Matthew Bryce.

Also in action will be long-time British international Sophie Johnstone who will be joined on the Southern senior women’s team by the experienced Emma Luxford and young talents Amelia Cook, Kerry Ford and Emily Snell.

The excitement has reached twitter as 2011 British Open champion Nathon Burns (North West), 2012 British Open bronze medallist Matthew Purssey (Scotland) and 2012 British Open silver medallist Tom Reed (Western) are all eyeing success in the hotly-contested senior men’s category.

Tom Reed said: “The summer of sport is upon us; first the Football Euro’s, now Wimbledon and soon the big one, the Judo National Teams.”

Matthew Purssey responded by saying: “Team JudoScotland will see you there!”

Nathon Burns said: “I will see you there as well – which team will rise? It’s nearly kick off time.”

All team entries are subject to change.

Follow British Judo on twitter for live updates. The official event hash tag is #NTC2012