The entire United Arab Emirates judo team has been sent home from the Asian Games after the Olympic Council of Asia ruled that all three members were ineligible, officials said Saturday.
Mihail Marchitan, Ivan Remarenco and Victor Scvortov were sent home from Incheon by officials because they failed to meet an Asiad three-year residency rule for naturalised citizens.
All are reportedly of Moldovan origin. But Scvortov won a bronze medal for the UAE at this year's world championships and Marchitan has also represented the Gulf state at international level.
"We received a letter from the OCA," said Nasser Al-Tamimi, secretary-general of the UAE judo federation.
"The three got their UAE passports two years ago. We have been told they need to finish the third year to allow them to participate.
"It's shocking for us because they had prepared well to take part in the Games."
Marchitan, Remarenco and Scvortov were due to start their bid for Asian Games glory on Saturday. The UAE received the OCA's letter on Friday.
"We had already received official approval for their participation," al-Tamimi said. "The OCA should have told us before the draw was made, not after."
The judo chief suggested that the fact different international sporting bodies have different requirements regarding naturalised citizens did not help. While the OCA asks for three years, football's governing body FIFA demands five.
Meanwhile, in handball, the UAE will be looking to bounce back from their defeat to China yesterday in the opening round of Group C.
The Emiratis, drawn with China, Qatar and Oman in the group, suffered a slow start but ended up with a narrow 22-25 loss to the Chinese.
Shehab Albalooshi top-scored for the UAE with five goals while goalkeeper and team captain Ahmed Abdulla was solid with six saves.
The UAE take on Asian champions Qatar today and team manager Saeed Mahboub admits it will be a tough task.
“Qatar have a strong team with tall and heavy-built players,” Mahboub told Sport360º.
“Our team is young and unfortunately our preparation period was short and not up to par compared to the rest of the teams who were sent abroad for several camps and went through international games before coming here.
“We still have a chance to qualify to the next round though.”
In men’s Trap shooting, Hamad Al Kendi gave the best performance of the day by an Emirati, shooting a 23, a 24 and a perfect 25, to score a total of 72/75 in the first day of qualifying to rank third heading into today’s action.
In fencing, Abdulla Al Hammadi was unable to make it through the preliminaries of the individual Epee, losing five bouts and winning just one in Pool E.
