Victor Scvortov secured a silver medal for the UAE at The Hague Grand Prix, bringing to an end the country’s medal drought at International Judo Federation (IJF) events this year.
Returning from a back injury, Scvortov eventually succumbed to Khadbaatar Narankhuu of Mongolia in the 73-kilogramme final at the three-day IJF World Tour that concluded on Sunday in the Netherlands.
“It was really an outstanding performance to come back from injury and win a medal for us,” Mohammed bin Taloub Al Derai, president of the UAE Wrestling, Judo and Kick Boxing Federation, said of Scvortov's effort.
“Victor’s performance goes to show the commitment and hard work of our judokas. We at the federation have a lot of faith in them that they will achieve more success for us in the coming years.
“Again, our build up is for the 2020 Olympic Games and such performances are encouraging for us.”
Scvortov had to overcome four opponents before a meeting with Narankhuu in the final.
He got the better of Portugal’s Nuno Saraiva, Dutchman Kenneth Henneveld, Tsogthba Tsend-Ochir of Mongolia and the European U23 silver medallist Akil Gjakova of Kosovo to reach the final.
Narankhuu produced the best performance of his career in a Grand Prix to overcome Scvortov.
The Mongolian used an ippon seoi nage with 56 seconds remaining to secure his first Grand Prix medal in 11 appearances.
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Sergiu Toma became the first UAE judoka to win an Olympic medal when he took silver at the 2016 Rio Games.
Scvortov, 29, has now won two gold, three silver and seven bronze medals in IJF Grand Slam and Grand Prix events since 2013.
His latest gong comes after the bronze medal he won at the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam.
Ivan Remarenco, the second judoka from the UAE, missed out on a bronze in the 100kg weight division.
He lost to Jelle Snippe of the host nation. The Dutchman rolled over Remarenco for a waza-ari and immediately applied a tate shiho gatame hold forcing the UAE judoka to tap out.
The UAE’s third entry, Mihail Machitan, was a second-round casualty in the 90kg weight class.
The Netherlands topped the medals table with five gold, two silver and five bronze from the 14 finals for both men and women.
