Turkey enjoys rare gymnastics success

MERSİN- Hürriyet Daily News

AA Photo

Turkey claimed rare artistic gymnastic medals at the 2013 Mediterranean Games as Italy continued its domination atop the medal table in Mersin.

Gymnasts Ferhat Arıcan, İbrahim Çolak and Ümit Şamiloğlu claimed medals, almost doubling Turkey’s historic Mediterranean Games total medal tally in the sport.

Until yesterday, Turkey had four medals in the sport. With the events at the Mersin Gymnastics Hall yesterday, three medals meant a remarkable achievement for the country.

Şamiloğlu claimed gold in the men’s vault, Çolak won silver in the men’s rings and Arıcan won the bronze in the men’s parallel bars.

Çolak’s medal is Turkey’s first podium finish in the category. “It is impossible to describe being the first in history,” he said. “I hope my teammates feel that too.”

Çolak’s wishes came true after Çolak and Şamiloğlu followed his achievement with medals.

Turkey is on course to break its medal record of 34 gold medals. As of midday yesterday, Turkey had collected 15 gold, 16 silver and 15 bronze medals. Italy’s success continued with 27 gold, 27 silver and 22 bronze medals.

Turkey also collected gold medals in women’s weightlifting, with Ayşegül Çoban and Emine Şensoy winning the 53kg clean and jerk and snatch medals between them.

Medal pool

The final swimming medals will be delivered today as the 2013 Mediterranean Games reach the halfway mark in Mersin.

Medals will be delivered in six categories at Mersin’s Olympic Swimming Pool today, with the 50m breaststroke, 200m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay finals being held in both men’s and women’s categories.

Other big events include the basketball and football competitions.

Turkey will meet Serbia in a hotly tipped men’s basketball final, while Tunisia and Macedonia will play for the bronze medal.

The national team will try to claim Turkey’s first-ever gold medal in a team sport at the Mediterranean Games.

Elsewhere, the Turkish national men’s football team will meet Tunisia and Morocco takes on Libya in the semifinals.

One of the highly anticipated events today will be the start of the beach volleyball competition at Kızkalesi, one of Mersin’s hottest tourist spots.