Kayaalp becomes world champion for fifth time

BELGRADE

Turkish wrestler Rıza Kayaalp has broken new ground by being the world champion for the fifth time.

The Greco-Roman style wrestler has bagged the gold medal in the 130kg category in the World Wrestling Championships in Serbia’s capital Belgrade on Sept. 13, after defeating his Iranian competitor, Amin Mirzazadeh.

“I have been a wrestler who has bagged the most medals in Türkiye’s history. It is a great honor,” said Kayaalp, who is also the 11th time European champion.

Posing for the media showing five fingers resembling his world championships, Kayaalp dedicated the victory to his family.

“Through the week, my son sent me videos showing him shouting ‘five, five, five.’ I hope they were not too excited after the final match,” he stated.

When asked what his new targets will be, the 32-year-old wrestler said he has only one and half years more ahead to compete in sports.

“I want to be the European champion one more time and bag gold at the Olympics,” he added.

Meanwhile, one other champion came in Belgrade from the Turkish national Greco-Roman wrestling team.

Bagging two gold and three bronze medals and with a total of 125 points, the national team became the champions as a team after 13 years.

The last time the national team got on the podium as champions was in the world championship held in Denmark in 2009.

Azerbaijan finished the tournament as runner-up with 118 points and Serbia was third with 110 points.