Toma storms into semifinals

Aysha Al Balushi during the 58kg weightlifting contest in Rio de Janeiro.

Sergiu Toma of the UAE continued to blast his way through in the bottom half draw of the men's judo under 81kg category in Rio.
With a one minute 47 seconds ippon inspired by the sode-tsurikomi-goshi technique, Toma doused the ambitions of Japan's Takanori Nagase in the quarterfinal, late Tuesday night, UAE time.
Nagase 's favourite uchi mata technique was kept in the freezer early on as the UAE judoka went straight for points instead of trying to slowly wear down the world number two Japanese and the 2015 world champion.
Toma next runs into another tough opponent - Russian K. Khalmurzaev - in the semis before midnight (UAE time).
Unlike in certain other sports in the Olympics, an entry into the semifinals does guarantee a medal in judo, as for the bronze medal, there will be another bout for the losing semifinalists.
Earlier, Toma entered the quarterfinal defeating local home favourite Victor Penalber (Brazil) by an ippon in 3 minutes and 17 seconds.
After being the more aggressive of the two on the mat, the hand grips of the UAE veteran, two time Olympian who finished fifth in the London Olympics, began to pay dividends as he went for the throws with quick leg sweeps and flips in traditional style to upset the calculations of the local ace.
In the round of 32, Toma got past Germany's Sven Maresch to set up the appointment with Penalber. Toma got his ippon waza-ari and a penalty (two yellows) forced on his opponent who looked strong in his defensive mechanisms early by being able to wriggle out of Toma's attacks.
Ivan Remarenko, who won a bronze for the UAE at the 2014 World Judo Championships, will be trying to improve on his first-round exit in London when goes to the Arena dojo mat on Thursday in the men's judo under 100kg classification. Romarenko will meet Algerian Laith Bo Yaaqoub in the first round.
On Monday night in the pre-quarterfinal, Viktor Skvortov (UAE) lost to eventual gold medal winner Shohei Ono (Japan) in the men's judo under 73kg category.
Asian double trap shooting number one Khalid Al Kaabi of the UAE will vie for a medal in the double trap contest on Wednesday while Shaikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Saif bin Futais will kick start their skeet shooting contest during the weekend. Aysha Al Balushi went out of the women's under 58kg weightlifting contest though she managed a peesonal in recent times with a total of 162kg to finish 15th. She was seventh in Group B. Thailand continued to show the world the superpowers in the lighter categories with another super show, this time finishing 1-2 in the 58g class for women. Sukhanya Srisurat amassed 240kg for gold, followed by teammate Pimsiri Sirikaew who managed 232kg. Bronze went to Chinese Taipeh's Kuo Hsing-chun.
Aysha said: "My participation proves that nothing is impossible for Emirati girls who can do wonders in all sports. I hope I can utilise this experience in my future events."
"Victor had done his best and he was just unlucky to lose. Victor did his part but had to give way against Ono whose seven ippons in the competition on his way to the gold medal is a recod of some kind. The Japanese was in awesome form. Full credit to Victor for standing up to the gold medallist in the pre-quarters." Nasser Al Tamimi, secretary general of the UAE Judo, Wrestling and Kick Boxing Federation, said.