Scortov rises to the challenge
UAE Judoka bags bronze medal at Asian Games
Six months ago, the UAE’s Victor Scvortov was still not sure if he will be competing at the 18th Asian Games as he was recovering from a knee injury.
But yesterday he proudly wore a bronze after beating Kyrgyzstan Bektur Rysmambetov by ippon in a chaotic contest marred by refereeing errors and a scoring machine malfunctioning.
There was lot of booing in the crowd after the referee reversed his decision once after handing over the bout to Scvortov. The contest resumed but was again held a couple of times due to technical problems.
It would have unsettled most but Scvortov remained calm and paying attention to every word of advice from edge of the floor by coach Vasile Volc, swept his opponent of the floor to win by ippon.
“It’s a huge relief to return from here with a medal. The refereeing was poor. It makes it difficult to concentrate one there is a stop and start but thankfully I stayed calm,” said an elated Scrortov, who had plenty of scratches and blood on his face to prove the effort he had put into his fights.
“I badly wanted this medal after making a comeback following the knee injury. I had worked really hard for it after all that time out of action,” added the Moldova-born judoka, who lost in the semis to eventual gold medallist Japan’s Shohei Ono.
“Losing to Ono was heartbreaking as it was the second time I was losing to him. He had defeated me at the Rio Games as well,” revealed Scvortov, who credited his success to the rehab programme and the tough training schedule that was put into place by team coach Volc.
“After my knee surgery, four month I was in rehabilitation in Barcelona. The support that I got from the UAE Jiu Jitsu Federation and from its secretary general Nasser Al Tamimi was massive,” said Scvortov, who defeated Saudi Arabia’s Fahad Sulaiman Hamad in round of 16. In the quarter-final, Scvortov defeated Giyosjon Boboev and all the wins came by ippon.
Volc also hailed Scvortov’s showing saying, “Victor has worked really hard to see this day and it turned out to be a good one. He was training in Japan and trying his best. He lost to the champion from Japan who is one of the firm favourites in this category but it was a good flight.
“Coming out of an injury and getting back into peak form is not easy. Victor has done that and all credit to him. More than anything it become psychological at one stage and has overcome all that and so the victory to be special.”
UAE’s have two more judokas — Ivan Remarenco and Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sergiu Toma leading the charge in the 100kg and 90kg category respectively.
Remarenco will be meeting India’s Avtar Singh while Toma will lock horns with Shakhzodbek Sabirov in the round of 16.
“We have got a good start and hopefully that will rub onto the others. We will have to see what happens tomorrow,” said Volc.
Indonesia have created a feud at the 18th Asian Games due to their athletes’ success in pencak silat.
The little known sport is regarded as one of the pet traditional martial art sport in Indonesia and they took full advantage of it to rake in 14 gold medals and a bronze.
The results have helped take Indonesia to fourth spot in the medal tally with 30 gold, 22 silver and 37 bronze so far. The achievement is double their previous best, when they last hosted the regional Olympics in 1962.
Four year’s back at the Incheon Games, they only had four golds and finished 17th in the standings. At the 2010 Games in Guangzhou they were ranked 15th and 2006 Doha Games they were placed 22nd with four and two golds respectively. Understandably the results this time around have not gone down well with many teams who have slipped in the medals tally as a result and they have raised a strong protest with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
While team’s like India and Iran has been vociferously protesting with the OCA of giving hosts an unfair advantage, The UAE feels there is no need to come down hard on Indonesia.
“Pencak silat is mainly followed in these countries — Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. It wasn’t there for beach Games but they pushed it for this Games. As a host country they need to win medals and be in a good position and cranking. OCA always fulfils the needs for the country who hosts the Game so that they can get medals,” said Chef de Mission of the UAE delegation Ahmed Al Tayeb.
Three medals
“If we are hosting the Asian Games then probably we will also end up putting endurance horse riding because we are good at that. Put it at different distance and maybe win three medals.
“Part of the Games conversation is always which sports should go out and come. There is always an argument over which sport we should stick on. So some sports like this come in if the host nation is keen to host. Over 40 sport is too big and if you see China, Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Korea they are dominating the medals for big sport. Even for us we are strong in jiu-jitsu and jet ski otherwise we won’t get any medals. So these are the advantage and disadvantage for everyone.”
Only twice has Indonesia finished ahead of India on the medals table, when it hosted the Games in 1962 at Jakarta and the 1990 Games in Beijing, where India had its worst performance in the history of the Games. India is now mulling over raising an official protest while the Iranian National Olympic Committee’s Reza Salehi Amiri has written to the OCA chief Shaikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Ahmad Al Sabah questioning the Asian body’s decision to include an event little known to the rest of Asia.
The little known sport is regarded as one of the pet traditional martial art sport in Indonesia and they took full advantage of it to rake in 14 gold medals and a bronze.