ABU DHABI // The UAE’s Sergiu Toma won a bronze medal as the three-day IJF Abu Dhabi Grand Slam at the FGB Arena at Zayed Sports City concluded on Sunday night.
The Moldova-born UAE judoka overcame Roman Moustopoulos of Greece in the bout for third place in the 81-kilogram division.
Moustopoulos, a past winner of the Tashkent Grand Prix title, could not keep pace in a back-and-forth match.
Toma scored the first with an opportunistic ko-soto movement, for yuko, after less than a minute. But Moustopoulos rallied for the lead with a beautiful counter-attack for waza-ari.
Toma regained the lead with a tani-otoshi for waza-ari before doubling the score with a sutemi-waza and a first medal for the organising country on the occasion of this first grand slam in the history of UAE.
Ivan Remarenco was eliminated in the second round by Elmar Gasimov of Azerbaijan at 100kg.
Four other Emirati fighters, including a woman, got past the first round.
Victor Scvortov went down to Hasan Vanlioglu of Turkey, and Humaid Al Derei, the UAE’s sole representative in the sport at the 2012 London Olympics, lost to Kiyoshi Uematsu of Spain, both at 73kg.Mihail Marchitan lost to Briton Gary Hall at 90kg.
Jalili Al Nuaimi was a first-round loser to Telma Monteiro of Portugal, the eventual gold medallist at 57kg.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam drew 322 judokas vying for honours and ranking points for the Olympic qualification, Rio 2016, over the three days.
Winners
Men 60kg: Orkhan Safarov (AZE); 66kg: Dzimitry Shershan (BLR); 73kg: Dex Elmont (NED); 81kg: Ivan Nifontov (RUS); 90kg: Krisztian Toth (HUN); 100kg: Dimitri Peters (GER); 100+kg: Daniel Natea (ROU).
Women 48kg: Urantsetseg Munkhbat (MGL); 52kg: Majlinda Kelmendi (KOS); 57kg: Telmo Monteiro (POR); 63kg: Tina Trstenjak (SLO); 70kg: Laura Vargas (GER); 78kg: Luise Malzahn (GER); 78+kg: Yu Song (CHN).
apassela@thenational.ae
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