6.08.2021
Taha Akgül in wrestling, Merve Çoban and Ali Sofuoğlu in karate all won bronze medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Friday 6 August.
In athletics, Eda Tuğsuz finished the Games with a throw of 64.00m in the javelin throw final. In the women's 20km race walking, Meryem Bekmez finished 22nd with a time 1:35:08, Ayşe Tekdal finished 39th with a time of 1:38:40 and Evin Demi ranked 41st with a time of 1:39:55.
In wrestling, Taha Akgül defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Aiaal Lazarev 4-0 in the freestyle 125kg repechage match and Mongolia’s Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur 5-0 in the bronze medal match to win his second Olympic medal for Turkey after first winning gold at Rio 2016. In freestyle 97kg, Süleyman Karadeniz defeated Uzbekistan’s Magomed Idrisovitch İbragimov 3-3 in his first bout with the advantage of the last point and advanced to the quarter-finals. After defeating Kazakhstan’s Alisher Yergali 8-7 in the quarter-finals, our wrestler lost to USA’s Kyle Frederick Snyder in the semi-finals and qualified for the bronze medal match, which will be held on Saturday 7 August. Evin Demirhan lost to USA’s Sarah Ann Hildebrant in the women's 50kg and was eliminated from the Games.
In karate, Merve Çoban defeated Serbia’s Jovana Prekovic 2-0 in the semi-finals and won the bronze medal. Ali Sofuoğlu ranked in the top 2 in the men's kata group and advanced to the qualifying round where he would compete for the medal matches. With a score of 27.32, he finished second in the qualifying round and secured his place in the bronze medal match where he defeated South Korea’s Heejun Park to win another medal for Turkey in karate.
In modern pentathlon, İlke Özyüksel scored 279 points in swimming, 185 points in fencing, 293 points in horse riding, and 593 points in laser-run, and finished fifth at the Games.