Turkish athletes' medal hopes looking bright ahead of Tokyo Olympics

By Halil Ibrahim Avsar

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish athletes bagged lots of medals for their country ahead of Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Despite a challenging year for the sports world by the global coronavirus pandemic, the athletes amassed numerous achievements in the international arena.

Collecting six gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal, Turkey have been placed at the top of the standings for the fourth time in a row in the general classification at 56th EKF European Senior Karate Championships.

Turkish karatekas, Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu, Ali Sofuoglu, Eray Samdan, Meltem Hocaoglu Akyol, Ugur Aktas, and the Men's National Kata Team received gold medals while the Women's National Kumite Team and Dilara Bozan had silver and Eda Eltemur had a bronze medal in the competition in Porec, Croatia.

Turkish gymnast Ayse Begum Onbasi won a gold medal at the 16th FIG Aerobic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The 19-year-old athlete scored 21.850 to get first place in the Individual Women's final as Turkey bagged the first medal in the senior category.
Turkish gymnast Ferhat Arican became the champion in the men's parallel bars competition at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in the Swiss city of Basel.

- Wrestling

The Olympic athlete Riza Kayaalp won his 10th European wrestling championship title after beating Georgia's Iakobi Kajaia 3-1 in the men's Greco Roman 130 kg final in Warsaw, Poland.

Olympic champion Taha Akgul bagged his 8th European title, defeating Russian opponent Sergei Kozyrev in the men's freestyle 125-kg gold medal match.
Also, Ekrem Ozturk, Yunus Emre Basar and Kerem Kamal Gumus, Murat Firat clinched bronze medals.

The men's national wrestling team completed the tournaments with three medals, including two golds and one silver, while Taha Akgul and Suleyman Atli received gold, Suleyman Karadeniz won the silver medal.

- 17 medals at European Weightlifting Champs

The national athletes collected 17 medals, including four golds, two silvers, and 11 bronze medals, in the 2021 European Weightlifting Championships in Moscow.

The gold medals came from Muhammed Furkan Ozbek -- two medals-- and Daniyar Ismailov -- one medal-- in the competition.

20-year-old Muhammed Furkan got a quota place for the Olympic Games after clinching two golds and one silver at IWF Junior World Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Turkey won 18 medals, including six gold, six silver, six bronze medals at the Junior World Weightlifting Championships.

The Turkish taekwondo fighters collected five medals in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Hakan Recber won the gold medal while Hatice Kubra Ilgun and Zeliha Agris bagged silver medals in the European Taekwondo Senior Championships.

Irem Yaman and Nur Tatar clinched a gold medal each.

In addition, Recber, 21, got a quota for the Summer Olympic games.

- Para Swimming athletes bag 6 medals

Turkish Paralympic swimmers Sevilay Ozturk won two golds and two silvers, while Sumeyye Boyaci clinched one silver and one bronze medal at the European Open Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Turkish youth and sports minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoglu ​​​​​​​said that the athletes turned the pandemic period into an opportunity, congratulating them on winning medals and getting quota places for the Olympics.

Initially scheduled for July last year, the 2020 Olympic games were among a host of sports events postponed worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The games are scheduled to take place from July 23 to Aug. 8 but without foreign spectators due to safety measures.