The Arab World has won its first 2016 Olympic medal.
Four days after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games officially kicked off, the United Arab Emirates’ Moldovan-born judo competitor Sergiu Toma registered the first mark on the Arab world’s medal tally, with a historic bronze medal win.
Ranking 9th in the world for the 81-kilogram category, Toma took out German and Brazilian opponents to book a ticket at the quarterfinals, where he defeated Japan’s reigning world champion Takanori Nagase.
His chances at a gold or silver medal were shot down by Russia’s Khasan Khalmurzaev, who went on to win the gold. Toma still earned a spot at the Olympic podium, after beating Italian Matteo Marconcini in the bronze medal bout.
This marks the UAE’s second Olympic medal since its debut at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and its first one since shooter Ahmed Al-Maktoum’s double-trap gold in 2004.
Toma was naturalized by the UAE in 2013, and has been competing for the Gulf nation since. “This is the result of huge effort we’ve been putting in at the federation for a long time,” the president of the UAE federation said, according to Sport 360.
Toma is one of three Moldovan judo competitors representing the UAE at the Rio Olympics. The 13-strong Emirati delegation also includes Ethiopian-born Alia Saeed Mohammed and Betlhem Desalegn, who will partake in athletics.
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