Sezgin Pancar and Mustafa Unal Uysal
MERSIN, Turkey (AA) - Turkish athletes made history in gymnastics by winning 10 medals at European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Turkey's southern port city of Mersin.
The European Championships in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics was held between Dec. 9-13, while the European Championships in Women's Artistic Gymnastics took place from Dec. 17 to 20.
A total of 218 gymnasts from 21 countries competed in floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall.
Turkey won 10 medals in a total while eight of them were bagged in men's and two of them were captured in women's.
In men's category, Umit Samiloglu, Ferhat Arican, Ibrahim Colak, Ahmet Onder, and Abdelrahman Elgamal represented Turkey in the tournament.
Turkey came second in men's with 244.793 points as Ukraine notched 248.963 points to win the gold at the tournament.
Hungary ranked third with 240.393.
- Ibrahim Colak, Ferhat Arican each win gold
Mert Efe Kilicer won silver and bronze medal in men’s junior at parallel bar and horizontal bar while Turkish male athletes bagged 2 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals in a total.
Bora Tarhan secured 13,000 points to claim bronze in the men's junior rings final.
He also came third with 14,016 points in the vault final.
Ibrahim Colak scored 15,000 points to bag the gold medal on men's ring for his country while Ferhat Arican won gold medal on the parallel bars with a total score of 15,100.
Arican also secured 14,433 points on pommel horse to secure bronze medal.
- Turkish female athletes bag 2 medals
Goksu Uctas Sanli, Dilara Yurtdas, Bilge Tarhan, Cemre Kendirci, and Ece Yagmur Yavuz competed in women’s category for Turkey.
Turkey racked up a total of 143,795 points to come in fourth in the Women's European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Derin Tanriyasukur won bronze medal in the parallel bars with a total score of 12,050.
Goksu Uctas Sanli bagged silver medal in floor after scoring 13,100 points in the final.
*Writing by Muhammed Enes Calli in Ankara