(Beijing, November 15) In the Group B-1 preliminaries of the men's 66kg category on the opening day of the 2007 Beijing Judo Open held at the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium, the famous Japanese judoist Uchishiba Masato, champion of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, shrugged off his opponents to advance to the next round.

Among the few top judoists that had entered for the Beijing open tournament, Uchishiba Masato is the strongest and most famous of all. In today's men's 66kg Group B-1 preliminaries, he remained calm and showed his rich experience and high technical and tactical levels and, by seizing the weaknesses of his opponents, beat three Chinese judoists in succession to qualify for the repechage. After the heats all his Chinese opponents admitted that the Japanese Olympic champion had an advantage in both strength and skill.

This evening, Uchishiba Masato will take on China's Liu Changchun from Group B-2 for a place in the final of Repechage B. If he wins, he will qualify for the gold-medal match.