UAE judoka Aram Grigorian's Paris 2024 medal hopes ended by narrow defeat

Impressive wins in boxing for Morocco's Mardi and Jordan's Zeyad Ishaish

Theodoros Tselidis of Team Greece and Aram Grigorian of Team UAE grapple in the repechage round. Getty Images

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UAE judoka Aram Grigorian was defeated in the repechage round of the men's 90kg judo competition at the Paris 2024 Olympics by Greece's Theodoros Tselidis on Wednesday evening.

With the contest scoreless and the two men tied on two penalties apiece, it went into "golden score" sudden death.

At that point the Greek fighter was awarded the win after Grigorian picked up another penalty when he was adjudged to have deliberately pushed his man out of bounds. Grigorian looked confused and disappointed by the decision with it being debatable how responsible he had been for the transgression.

However, it was the Greek judoka who progressed to the bronze medal match by the narrowest of margins.

Grigorian had been in blistering form earlier in the day as he raced through the first two rounds, dominating Uzbekistan's Tokyo bronze medallist Davlat Bobonov in the Round of 32 and then two-time world bronze winner Marcus Nyman in the last 16, defeating both opponents 10-0.

But he suffered a setback against two-time Asian champion Sanshiro Murao of Japan, who secured victory via ippon. That sent Grigorian into the repechage round where he saw his bronze medal hopes ended by Tselidis.

It was a good day for the region's boxers with big wins for Morocco's Khadija Mardi in the women's 75kg competition and Jordan's Zeyad Ishaish in the men's 71kg division.

Ishaish had already produced one of the biggest shocks of the boxing tournament when he upset gold medal hope Aslanbek Shymbergenov from Kazakhstan in the Round of 32.

And he backed that up in style with a split decision verdict over Japan's Sewon Okazawa, the 2021 world gold medal winner at welterweight, to seal a place in the quarter-finals.

Cheered on by his Jordan teammates, the rugged Ishaish stuck to his work as the showboating Japanese fighter – strongly fancied for a medal in Paris – danced around the ring and looked to score with single shots.

His flashy style didn't impress the judges though and it was Ishaish who led on four of the five cards after the opening round.

The Japanese fighter had more joy in the second session but the 25-year-old Jordanian retained a narrow lead heading into the final round.

Okazawa unleashed one eye-catching flurry in the corner but it was Ishaish who earned a 3-2 decision for the biggest win of his career so far.

Earlier in the day, Morocco's Mardi produced a desperate last-gasp barrage to salvage her campaign in the women’s 75kg division.

The Casablanca fighter found herself staring at defeat with Britain’s Chantelle Reid’s speed and accuracy giving her all manner of problems in Paris, but the 33-year-old dug deep to land a series of late flurries to somehow eke out a 3-2 verdict on the cards.

Mardi is the world champion at heavyweight (81kg+) – Morocco’s first ever female world gold medallist boxer – but with no competition for the big girls at the Olympics she has had to boil down to middleweight (75kg) in search of more glory.

That meant she was giving up speed and mobility to Team GB’s Reid who boxed up on her toes and pitched a dominant opening round, rewarded by a 5-0 sweep on the cards.

Mardi began to get a read of her opponent’s rhythm in the second session and found a home for her right hand, stopping the British fighter in her tracks with a series of stiff one-twos. Four of the judges gave her the round meaning it was all on the line in the last.

Mardi couldn’t pick up where she left off though, and Reid’s superior footwork took over once again with her movement and shot selection seemingly putting her on course for the next round.

That was until the final 30 seconds of the bout when Mardi came to life with a burst of hard jabs and right hands, the last of which she backed up with a big uppercut.

It was just enough to sway three of the judges and earned her a majority decision over the unlucky Brit.

Mardi is competing at her second Olympics having lost in the quarter-finals at Rio 2016. She missed Tokyo for health reasons but is now just one win away from the 75kg medal bouts.

Egypt's Omar Elawady suffered a comprehensive defeat in his last 16 bout in the men's 71kg competition. The 24-year-old Elawady had one of toughest draws possible as he came up against the Uzbekistani boxer Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev.

Muydinkhujaev, the 2023 welterweight world champion, dominated throughout to claim a unanimous decision. A slick southpaw, Muydinkhujaev will be hard to beat in Paris.