The UAE Wrestling, Judo and Kick Boxing Federation said Sergiu Toma fully deserved to claim a medal at the Rio Olympics because of his drive and dedication for his sport.
The judoka became the second UAE athlete to make the podium at an Olympic Games when he took bronze in the judo -81kg weight class on Tuesday.
Toma, 29, defeated Italy's Matteo Marconcini at the Carioca Arena 2 to etch his name in UAE history having earlier narrowly missed out on a place in the final. Until then, only Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher, the Dubai royal who clinched gold in shooting at Athens 2004, had taken an Olympic medal for the Emirates.
Moldovan-born, Toma began competing for the UAE three years ago alongside fellow judokas Victor Scvortov and Ivan Remarenco and immediately underwent an extensive programme to prepare for Rio.
More Olympics
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Naser Al Tamimi, general secretary of the UAE Wrestling, Judo and Kick Boxing Federation, said the governing body always had total confidence in Toma given his focus and commitment to making history with the UAE.
“Toma and I have been together for a long time and have been talking about this moment for three and a half years,” Al Tamimi said.
“I trust Toma very much, because every time he says something to me, whether it’s putting a strategy or a plan in place to prepare for a competition or competing itself, he’s achieved what he set out to do.
“He wanted a special programme for this Olympics, to take a medal for the UAE so he could give back a little in return for what it had given him, and when he puts his mind to something he always makes it happen.
“It’s a huge achievement not only for him personally, but for UAE judo. We were counting down the days for this, day-by-day, since 2013.
“Three years of planning, of full application and full concentration, which at times was really very stressful, but finally the ice is broken. It’s all worth it. It’s fantastic.”
Toma, who entered the Olympics ranked No 9 in the world for his weight class, has competed twice before at a Summer Games, but never got close to a medal. At Beijing in 2008, he was eliminated in the second round, while he went one round better four years later at London.
“For him, it’s a huge achievement because he’d been trying for two Olympics,” Al Tamimi said. “So I had that feeling since the beginning of the year, because he put his whole focus on winning a medal here.
“For him, it really meant a lot – you could see in his reaction after he won when he was crying. The feeling and emotion was unbelievable; he felt it very deeply. It was obvious it was something big in his heart.
“I had breakfast with him this morning and you could just see it on his face: it was like he’d woken from a big dream, except that dream turned out to be true.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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