Turkish wrestlers achieve their second best since 1949

By Halil Ibrahim Avsar

NOVI SAD, Serbia

Turkey won in total five gold medals, one silver and three bronze medals at the recent 2017 European Wrestling Championships in Serbia, marking the country's second biggest achievement in the sport since 1949.

President of Turkey's Wrestling Association Musa Aydin told Anadolu Agency on Monday that Turkey was a "huge success" at the competition which ended Sunday.

"We scored another historic victory. I would like to express my gratitude to our technical team, the management, those who contributed to this success and in particular to our athletes.

"I would also like to thank [Turkish] Sports and Youth Minister Akif Cagatay Kilic for his support," Aydin said, adding he hoped this momentum would continue at the upcoming 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, a multinational and multi-sport event which will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan between May 12 and 22.

"We will get gold medals there too, and have our national anthem played," he said.

At the championships in Novi Sad, Turkish athletes Taha Akgul, Soner Demirtas, Riza Yildirim, Riza Kayaalp and Yasemin Adar came first in their and won gold medals.

Basar won the silver medal, while Suleyman Atli, Selim and Aslan Atem were the bronze medalists.

Turkey ranked 3rd as a team in the freestyle category, 4th in Greco-Roman category and 8th in women's wrestling.

Turkey had come back from the 1949 European Wrestling Championships in Istanbul with six gold, one and one bronze medals.