UAE judokas aim for 'three to four medals' at Asian Games in Hangzhou

The old guard will make way for the new as the UAE aim to bring home more medals in judo from the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

The squad, comprising six men and two women, have high hopes for the 19th edition of the Games from September 23 to October 8.

“We are very hopeful of returning with three to four medals from the Asian Games with this new squad assembled at the beginning of 2022,” Nasser Al Tamimi, general secretary of the UAE Wrestling and Judo Federation, told The National.

“These judokas are professionals, and they are part of our pathway programme to represent the UAE at the Olympics. They train for 11 months of the year and regularly compete in the world circuit.”

The squad is now managed by their former judokas who represented the UAE in two Olympics – Victor Scvortov and Ivan Remarenco.

“Victor is head coach and Ivan is his assistant. We believe it's a good move as they have been with us for around nine years and taken part in two Olympics,” Al Tamimi said.

“Victor and Ivan have both been in this situation, and they understand our goals and objectives. They know the kind of environment we want the new team to be in. Our main objective is to get them to the Olympics.”

Scvortov and Remarenco competed in the 2018 Jakarta Games, with the former winning bronze.

“Of course, the Asian Games is important for our judokas as it carries more ranking points to qualify for the Olympics. We are targeting most, if not all of them, to qualify for Paris.

“To qualify for the Olympics is very challenging because they will have only 18 places in each weight category through the worldwide rankings and four each from the continents.”

Heading the world rankings in the men’s division is Dzhafar Kostoev, competing in the 100kg