All eyes are set on the World Archery Championship in July of next year, which will determine the Turkish team’s quota in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as Turkey continues to seek its first medal in this sport.
Natalia Nasaridze, an idol in the field of
women’s archery during the 1990s.
The national archery team continues to work hard
for the upcoming international competitions.
All eyes are set on the World Archery Championship in July of next year, which will determine the Turkish team’s quota in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as Turkey continues to seek its first medal in this sport.
Turks, ambitious and assertive in archery, came close to making it to the podium with fourth place showings in three previous Summer Olympics.
“The World Outdoor Archery Championships will take place next year in July in Torino. We will strive for Olympic quotas there. Our entire schedule is about that. The women’s and men’s national teams continue training at the facilities of Ankara’s Hacettepe University under the supervision of professors from the sports sciences and technologies department,” Turkish Archery Federation President Abdullah Topaloğlu told Sunday’s Zaman.
The national team continues to work hard for the upcoming international competitions and is currently training in Ankara in this year’s fourth training camp. “We keep on working to select the best athletes for the 2011 worlds in Torino. We want to take the best degrees in the Olympics. Making it to the top 16 or eight will be advantageous for our Olympic targets,” the Turkish national team’s coach, Alper Aytaçoğlu, said. Aytaçoğlu further noted that the quotas have not been announced by the International Archery Federation (FITA) but, according to their earlier experiences, the top eight can secure a spot in London 2012 Summer Olympics. Archery is featured in both individual and team categories in the Olympics. “Our squad is a rather young one. We have European champions. We began early to work for the next season. Important days are ahead. The target is 2012 London,” he noted. While recalling the close shots for Olympic medals, Aytaçoğlu added that they are working both psychologically and physically lest they miss a medal this time. Göktuğ Ergin, a Turkish archer who took part in the Summer Olympics, was among the athletes in Ankara, while Natalia Nasaridze, an idol in the field of women’s archery during the 1990s, will join the training camp later, the coach said. Nasaridze had made an Olympic record in the 1996 Olympics; however, she was unable to perform in the finals.
Eighteen-year-old archer Begünhan Elif Ünsal has entered Turkey’s sports agenda with her recent achievements and become a hope for an Olympic medal in London.
The successful archer became a bronze medalist in the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics Games, won a silver medal in European Indoor Championship in the Croatian city of Porec and took a bronze medal in a European championship in the teams category.
Ünsal started archery eight years ago with her father’s support. “I began earning good degrees as a result of a year of work. Now I must develop my achievements,” the young archer told the Cihan news agency.
“I started archery at 10. My elder sister was an archer. Her coach left the city and then my father became an archery coach. I continued for two years. I got a medal in my second appearance at a national competition,” she said.
Ünsal aims to work more and win an Olympic medal. İstanbul, Antalya to host major archery events Federation head Topaloğlu said Turkey has always been among the top archery countries and that the nation is in top three in terms of organizational skills. To prove Topaloğlu right, İstanbul is set to host the World Cup finals, one of the most prestigious archery events in the world, in September 2011, while the southern city of Antalya is set to host World Archery Championship in 2013.
Topaloğlu further noted that they are happy with the growth of the sport across Turkey.
“Interest in archery is increasing nationwide. There used to be 100 to 150 athletes in national competitions, but this figure has risen to 300 to 350 in each category of the competitions nowadays.”
He also added that they provide equipment to the cities where archery is taking off.
Archery as a Turkish tradition
The sport was practiced in early Turkic states, but the greatest importance was attached to it during Ottoman times. Fatih Sultan Mehmet, the conqueror of İstanbul, concentrated archery activities and the production of bows and arrows in İstanbul’s Okmeydanı (Square of Arrows) district. Subsequent sultans expanded the district by adding additional facilities. Later, a bazaar was opened behind Beyazıt Mosque in İstanbul, where all the manufacturers of archery equipment gathered. Although the sport went into decline during the later periods of the Ottoman Empire and during the early years of the Turkish Republic, numerous attempts have been made to revive the tradition of Turkish archery.
Turkey became the 16th member of the International Archery Federation (FITA) in 1955. After the establishment of a national archery federation in 1961, Turkish archers began to represent the country at the international level. There was a brief interruption in the development of the sport in 1982, when the federation was attached to the Turkish Shooting and Hunting Federation. The Turkish Archery Federation was re-established in 1982, and Uğur Erdener became the head of the federation. Erdener would later manage archery throughout the world when he was elected president of FITA in 2005.
24 October 2010, Sunday
ESRA MADEN İSTANBUL
- Source : http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-225223-5-turkish-archers-eye-worldsfor-berths-in-olympics.html
