Ahmed Gamal El Din

National Judo Team Player Ivan Romanko left the under 100 kg competitions after losing against his Canadian counterpart Shadi Al-Nahhas in the 32^nd Judo Tournament of the 32^nd Olympic Games. National team runner, Mohammed Hassan Al-Noubi, is the only representative of the UAE to participate in the Olympic forum on July 29. 

Noubi will participate in the 100-meter race, after the departure of  national team shooter Saif bin Futais who ranked 24^th in the skeet competition with 117 points, and Victor Skritov, national judo player, who left the round No. 32 under 73 kg, as well as Yousuf Al Matrooshi, who ranked 50^th in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 51:50 seconds.

Nasser Al-Tamimi, Secretary-General of the Judo and Wrestling Federation, stressed that the participation of the judo team players, Victor and Romakco, were done in the best possible way, noting that the Judo Federation family hoped to repeat the success of Rio de Janeiro in 2016 to delight the leadership and people of the Emirates with a colorful medal. 

Al-Tamimi said: ” We apologize to the leadership and people of the UAE for not being able to achieve an Olympic medal in Tokyo.”

“The Judo and Wrestling Federation always considers failure the biggest motivator to work, address negative matters and modify them, enhance the positives and gains in every forum,” he said. 

Al-Tamimi explained that Victor Skritov’s participation in the under 73 kg competition in Tokyo Olympics was distinguished as he lost seconds before the end of the match after scoring first at the beginning.

Al-Tamimi added that from now on, we promise the UAE audience to achieve a colorful medal in the next Olympic Games Tournament in Paris in 2024.

Al-Tamimi revealed that the Wrestling and Judo Federation will commence the new preparation stage as of next September, working on booking direct qualification cards for 3 players in order to participate and compete for a colorful medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024, where the female athletes of the judo team will be added in this forum.

Azza bin Sulaiman, Assistant Secretary-General for Administrative and Financial Affairs of the National Olympic Committee, met  Sheikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Vice President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, on the fringe of the UAE delegation’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics, where the importance of enhancing means of cooperation between the two sides was emphasized. They also reviewed the participation of the delegations of the UAE and Bahrain in the Tokyo Olympics before the shields of both committees were exchanged.

The International Olympic Committee informed the National Olympic Committees and all participants in the Olympic Games in Tokyo not to interfere in the privacy of the players during the performance of daily exercises and not to publish them on social media platforms to give them space to focus on their training.