He failed to win his three previous major tournaments.

But Japanese judoka Masato Uchishiba is eager to make amends by retaining his Under-66kg gold at the Beijing Games today.

However, the 30-year-old faces a tough draw, highlighted by a likely second-round tie with Iran's Arash Miresmaeili, 2001 and 2004 world champion.

Uchishiba had a poor 2007, failing to qualify for the World Championships.

Then in February this year, he lost to South Korean Kim Joo-jin in the final at the prestigious Paris Super World Cup, and again at the Asian Championships.

Nevertheless, he qualified for Beijing by winning through the national trials.

Miresmaeili is also a controversial figure in judo. He failed to make the weighing at Athens Games, in what many believed was a deliberate act to avoid fighting Israeli Ehud Vaks.

Iranian officials had claimed that he was too ill to make weight, while the media in Iran lauded him for refusing to fight an Israeli.

He was also awarded the same monetary prize by the Iranian government that was given to gold medallists.

Miresmaeili settled for bronze at both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, and won the silver at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, losing to Mongolia's Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar.

Having just missed out on a medal in Sydney in 2000, the Iranian will be eager to finally claim the medal from Uchishiba.

Brazil's Joao Derly, the 2005 and 2007 world champion, is bunched in the other half of the draw and faces Kim in his opening bout.

Georgian Zaza Kedelashvili, who won his third straight European title this year, is in the same half of the draw as Derly, and could face European runner-up Miklos Ungvari in the second round.

However, all eyes will be on Uchishiba, who had said upon winning the Athens Gold: "I wanted this so badly, I wouldn't have cared if it was my last fight."