UAE’s Humaid Al Derei received a hefty beating in his first contest at the Olympic Games as the young Emirati bowed out of the -66kg competition.
The 21-year-old from Meknas lost to Egypt’s Ahmed Awad, ranked 34 in the world – 110 places higher than Al Derei.
Awad, 25, finished off his opponent in 2 minutes 37 seconds with a brilliant Tate-shiho-gatame hold to score an ippon – maximum points – and secure victory.
Al Derei, making his Olympic debut, has been suffering from an eye illness that causes extreme sensitivity to light and only managed to prepare for the Games a couple of months ago, and Nasser Al Tamimi, the Secretary General of the UAE Wrestling, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu Federation is proud of the young man’s efforts.
“Humaid did well considering it’s a competition as huge as the Olympics and considering how young he is,” Al Tamimi told Sport360.
“He just got out of juniors so this is a big step up for him. As a judoka I believe he showed he’s really good and has a lot of talent even though he wasn’t training well all year due to several circumstances. We are very proud of him and we all understand that this is a step towards the Rio 2016 Olympics.
“We are already preparing for 2016, where he will be older and much more ready for competing at this stage.”
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