Kuumar Shyam (Aletihad)
Magomedomar 'Omar' Magomedomarov has won the first gold medal for the UAE at the Asian Games in judo, with athletes from the sport impressing the most so far at the quadrennial event in China. Magomedomarov took the top spot on the podium in the over 100-kilogram category when he defeated Tajikistan's Rakhimov Temur. Once the Russia-born judoka sealed the contest with an ippon for his fourth match of the competition, the UAE tally from judo stood at one gold, silver and three bronze.
Earlier in the day, Aram Grigorian (90kg) won another bronze after Narmandakh Bayanmunkh (66kg) landed one for the men on Sunday's opening day. Grigorian outclassed Han Juyeop of South Korea in the second session of the day at the Xiaoshan Linpu Gymnasium. Among the women, Bishrelt Khorloodoi bagged a silver in the 52kg category on Sunday.
The five medals on the penultimate day for the judo competition is more than the "three to four" medals that the UAE Judo Federation Secretary General Naser Al Tamimi had hoped for when talking to Aletihad. "This is the highest level of performance that we would have liked and matching our expectations," he said yesterday.
About Magomedomarov, the official lauded his efforts where "he has been trying hard since more than one year. He went to couple of competitions; he targeted the gold here and he made it.
The other three bronze medals in Games like this and the silver in the women's category are also very important to all of us. In general, the overall performances has been amazing; perfect actually. They achieved the goals according to the plans we laid out for them for more than a year. The environment at such events like the Games have more pressure than normal competitions. It is good preparations now for us at the Olympics.
There was not much time for Magomedomarov to relish his feat after going all the way in the competition as he had to fly back to the UAE. The celebrations were cut short as he headed out of the venue to catch his flight, just a few hours after the bout.
His feat made up for the slight disappointment when the UAE's top favourite for the yellow, Dzhafar Kostoev, had to settle for bronze.
Yet, it was a creditworthy performance from Kostoev as he beat the reigning Olympic champion Philip Wolf of Japan for a fighting place on the under 100kg category podium yesterday.
Khorloodoi missed out on the top prize after losing to Diyora Keldiyorova in the final by a golden score. If the point aand number of penalties are the same then a winner is decided by sudden-death overtime or golden score, when the first person to score is declared the winner.
The judo contingent comprised six men and two women. They prepared in the month leading up to the Games in Georgia and Japan, the choice of the latter to replicate conditions in China.
Altantsetseg Batsukh (women's 57kg), Karim Abdulvaev and Nugzari Tatalashvili in the men's 73kg and 81kg respectively, made up the rest of the squad.
The good show is also a result of the Federation putting faith in young talent with an eye on the Paris Olympics next year while also putting current judokas as coaches. Victor Scvortov and Ivan Remarenco, who represented UAE at two Olympics, have been charged with training the side.
Meanwhile, Sultan Al Nuaimi made history on Monday by becoming first boxer from the UAE to win a bout at the Asian Games.