By Can Erozden
ANKARA (AA) - Team Turkey brought home with 13 medals from Tokyo 2020, making it the best Olympic performance in the nation’s history, breaking a 73-year record.
Turkey this year won two gold medals, two silvers, and nine bronzes in the Games, postponed from last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turkey ranked 35th in this year’s medal ranking, led by the US and China in the top two slots.
Turkey enjoyed its best Olympics ever in the Japanese capital, beating its medal record from London 1948, where it bagged 12 Olympic medals – six golds, four silvers, and two bronzes.
Turkey earned two gold medals at Tokyo 2020, in archery and boxing.
On July 31 Mete Gazoz took the gold in the men's individual archery final, bringing Turkey its first-ever Olympic medal for archery.
Gazoz, 22, beat Italy's Mauro Nespoli 6-4 in the gold medal match. It was Turkey's first gold in Tokyo as well.
Turkey took its second and final gold in Tokyo in women's boxing when Busenaz Surmeneli, 23, became the Olympic welterweight champion on Saturday, the Games’ penultimate day.
Surmeneli defeated China’s Gu Hong 3-0 to secure the first-ever Olympics medal in boxing for Turkey.
- Turkey's medal-winning athletes in Tokyo
Gold: Mete Gazoz (archery), Busenaz Surmeneli (boxing)
Silver: Eray Samdan (karate), Buse Naz Cakiroglu (boxing)
Bronze: Hakan Recber, Hatice Kubra Ilgun (Taekwondo), Ferhat Arican (gymnastics), Riza Kayaalp, Yasemin Adar, Taha Akgul (wrestling), Ali Sofuoglu, Merve Coban, Ugur Aktas (karate)
- Gymnast Arican seals first-ever gymnastics medal for Turkey
Ferhat Arican, 28, also made history in Tokyo by bringing home the first-ever Olympic medal for Turkey in gymnastics.
On Aug. 3 Arican earned a bronze medal with 15.633 points in the men's parallel bars final.
- Wrestling below expectations
Historically wrestling has been Turkey's best area in the Olympics, as over the years it has scored a total of 66 medals – including 29 gold medals.
But at Tokyo 2020, Riza Kayaalp, Yasemin Adar, and Taha Akgul all won bronze medals, in a sub-par year for the Turkish team.
Before the 2020 Games, Turkey had expected gold medals from Kayaalp and Akgul, as the Turkish duo were seen as favorites.
Akgul, 30, was a gold medalist in the freestyle 125 kg at Rio 2016.
Kayaalp, 31, bagged a silver in Greco-Roman 130 kg in Rio, and a bronze in the 120 kg category at London 2012, his first Olympics.
At Rio 2016, Turkish wrestlers took five medals.
- Thrilling showing in women's volleyball
The Turkish women's national volleyball team reached the Tokyo 2020 quarterfinals, scoring the country's best Olympic performance yet.
Turkey previously qualified for the last eight phase in the 2020 Games, completing Pool B in the number three position with 3-2 win/loss record.
In Tokyo, the Turkish team was eliminated in the quarterfinals on Aug. 4, losing to South Korea 3-2.
With the defeat, Turkey this year came in fifth.
In its Olympic debut in volleyball in London 2012, the Turkish women's team ended the games in the number nine spot.