Olympian Colin Oates, who placed 7th at London 2012, will meet double Olympic bronze medalist and twice world champion at -60kg, Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan today in the first round of the men’s -66kg category at the Judo World Championships in Rio.

While on paper it seems a tough draw, it could go either way.

Sobirov stepped up to -66kg from -60kg in October 2012 following his bronze at London 2012. In that weight category he was tipped as top seed to win the Olympics, having secured a bronze in Beijing too. In his new weight this is his fourth tournament and he achieved silver in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and fifth in the Tokyo Grand Slam.

Meanwhile, Oates has showed good form this year, coming back from injury to win a superb silver at Moscow last month following an earlier one in San Salvador.

“It feels good to go into the World Championships having won silver in the Moscow Grand Slam and the San Salvador Continental Open. Now hopefully I can add a World Championships to my record too,” said Oates.

“I feel better now than four or five months ago, when I was recovering from injury. Having to pick yourself is never easy, but my comeback has seen me fight in Miami and win silver medals in San Salvador and Moscow. It is a great feeling to come back stronger.”

“It feels great to be here in Rio ahead of 2016, because not only is this in the same city of the next Olympics, in terms of competition it is just a step down from the Olympics. In a sense, it is almost like a training ground for the next Olympics, and I could potentially face other Olympians too,” he said.

“The Brazilians are known to be very supportive and so I am expecting an electric atmosphere to fight in.

“It will be different to London 2012 when we were the host nation, so obviously they will be supporting their own but it will be nice to have the chance to fight a Brazilian in their home country.”

The action begins at 2pm. Oates is fighting in the bottom half of pool B, so expect his fight around 3pm. Tune in to ippon.tv,org. As always, we will try to give a 10 minute heads up!

Words by Donna Richardson. Images courtesy of Mike Varey.