Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
UAE judoka Aram Grigorian did remarkably well at the 33rd Summer Olympics in Paris before falling short at the quarter-final stage in the men's repechage event in the Under-90 kilogramme category at the Champ-de-Mars in the French capital on Wednesday.
Grigorian's efforts on the mat has been the best for the country so far, and followers were left in anguish when he lost to Sanshiro Murao of Japan in the weight category of Under-100 kilogrammes.
Grigorian fell short of a crack at the semi-finals which would have guaranteed a bronze medal, matching the best in judo for the UAE by Sergiu Toma, who won the UAE's second medal in Olympics history with his 2016 effort.
The UAE is participating with 14 athletes competing in five different sports.
More than 10,500 athletes from across 200 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are competing in 32 sports through 329 events being held over 35 venues.
Grigorian stumbled in his third match of the day against the Japanse rival and then got dispirited to go on to lose the consolation prize match against Theodoros Tselidis of Greece.
Had he won that, he could have competed for the bronze in that plate category.
Earlier, he began his Olympic participation by facing Uzbekistan's Bobonov Davlat in the Round of 32, which featured 50 players.
He then won by ippon against Sweden's Marcus Nyman, who holds a bronze medal from the Doha 2023 World Judo Championships, in a morale-boosting victory that raised everyone's hopes for a short while.
On Thursday, the UAE equestrian team will start its participation in the team showjumping competition, which lasts for two days and takes place at the Palace of Versailles.
The event features 60 riders representing 20 teams, with the top 10 teams qualifying for the final round.
Also on the day is the penultimate judo athlete left from the six-strong bunch, Dzhafar Kostoev, who will compete in the Under-100 kg category against Brazil's Jonka Leo.
William Fannell, coach of the UAE national showjumping team, confirmed that during the final preparations, the team's performance at the Nations Cup in Prague, Czech Republic, in June was a wonderful indication of the form the riders had reached.
All the horses showed excellent performance, and he expressed his satisfaction with the results achieved by the showjumping team so far.
"The process of selecting the team was very difficult after the Prague tournament, as everyone performed strongly, and the riders made great efforts. I noticed a great improvement in all their levels since we started training in October, and we hope to achieve positive and advanced results in the individual and team events," Fannell said through a statement by the NOC.
Fannell pointed out that all the horses have successfully passed the veterinary inspection in preparation for the competitions, with the riders conducting their second training session on Wednesday at the competition venue, including the warm-up round.
The UAE sports delegation visited the UAE Olympic House in Paris, where the athletes learned about the different sections of the house, conducted a tour of its corridors, and took several commemorative photos.
Handball Official On the officiating side, Salah Ashour, a member of the Asian Handball Federation's Board of Directors, Chairman of its Referees' Committee, and a member of the International Handball Federation's Rules and Referees Committee, has been taking part at the Paris 2024 Games as a lecturer and technical observer since the start of the event.
He supervises an average of six matches daily, alternating between men's and women's categories, until the end of the first round, then moving to Lyon, which will host the final stages.
This is the first time Ashour is participated at the Olympics as a technical observer.
He has previously took part in many World Championships for men, women, youth, and juniors since the 2007 World Club Championship, and Olympic qualifiers for national teams.
