Today's Edition
Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)
The UAE finished with two gold medals as the hosts of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, where the winners began their Olympic cycle quest on a positive note. After two days, the UAE led the medal tally at one stage. They competed with 12 men and two female judokas in the fray.
In the end, two gold medals was the same for the top four nations on the overall tally, but Netherlands, France and Germany took the podium with UAE finishing close behind.
At the very end of the competition, it was the Netherlands who finished in first place, ahead of France and Germany, with the Emirates following closely behind, while the four countries each won two titles.
The Mubadala Arena hosted the first grand slam event since the culmination of the Paris Olympics and many young athletes who were on the fringe or missed out on glory at the Summer Games reignited their qualification pursuit by heading to Abu Dhabi for the first major event of the new season.
The UAE's first medal came through Bishrelt Khorloodoi on the first of the three-day event when she beat Mongolia's Sosorbaram in the Under-52 kilogramme category final. She set out on her eventual golden path by defeating Brazil's Conceicao Gabriela in the preliminary round followed by victory over Muminoviq Erza of Kosovo to seal her entry into the summit clash.
On the second day, it was Makhmadbek Makhmadbekov who went all the way to justify his top billing in the Under-73kg category. He also produced the best finish of the two, winning the golden metal by an ippon over his rival in the final.
The top seed and ninth in the world, Makhmadbekov started off against Oliver Short of Great Britain. The o-soto-gari specialist hit the mark after only 13 seconds for a first waza-ari followed up on the ground for a first quick victory.
Makhmadbekov took longer to overcome the challenge of Serbia's Bajsangur Bagajev before he found the opening during the golden score for a waza-ari. In the semi-final, it was Karen Galstian of Russia who paid the price for Makhmadbekov's good form. Makhmadbekov and Abubakr Sherov of Tajikistan saw none relenting for a while.
There was power, commitment, tactics, but above all, search to throw. However, Sherov got penalised twice and in the golden score, Makhmadbekov produced his effort.
It started with an o-uchi-gari to get closer and was followed by a huge pickup technique, close to an o-sturi-goshi. The massive and beautiful move ended in an ippon as Makhmadbekov rose his hands in the air to celebrate.
The UAE Judo Federation President Mohamed bin Thaaloob Alderei took pride in handing over the gold medal to Makhmadbekov in the presence of the International Judo Federation President Marius Vizer.
