Our national archer, Mete Gazoz, won the gold medal in the men's individual archery final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and became the first champion archer in our Olympic history.
During the matches held at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field on Saturday 31 July, Mete Gazoz defeated Australia’s Tyler Worth 7-1 in the 1/8 eliminations, world number 1 Brady Ellison from the USA 7-3 in the quarter-finals and Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa 7-3 in the semi-finals. In the final, Mete Gazoz defeated Italy’s Mauro Nespoli 6-4 to win the first Olympic medal in our archery history.
Mete Gazoz, in his statement after the medal ceremony, said: "with this medal, I would be happy if I sprinkled some water in the hearts of the Turkish people, who are sad because of the forest fires that took place in Turkey".
Aside from archery, our athletes competed in athletics, volleyball and sailing.
In athletics, Ersu Şaşma made it to the finals by entering the top 12 with a jump of 5.65m in the pole vault groups. Ersu Şaşma became the first athlete to reach the Olympic finals in pole vault since Ruhi Sarıalp at London 1948. In the 100m qualifiers, Jak Ali Harvey finished his heat in 6th place with a time of 10.25 and was eliminated. Emre Zafer Barnes was eliminated in the heats with a time of 10.47, finishing seventh.
In volleyball, our national team secured a 3-0 victory against Argentina in its fourth group match, and booked its place in the quarter-finals. This is the second time we have qualified for an Olympic Games in women’s volleyball and it is the first time we have reached the quarter-finals.
In sailing, Alican Kaynar finished 7th in the seventh Finn class race, but could not complete the eighth race.