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After a year-long hia­tus due to the Covid-19 pan­demic, Ali Gürbüz won his sec­ond con­sec­u­tive title at the 660^th edi­tion of Turkey’s Kırkpınar olive oil wrestling cham­pi­onship.

Gürbüz defeated Ankara native İsmail Koç after 48 min­utes to claim the title of Başpehlivan or chief wrestler. In addi­tion to the pres­ti­gious title, Gürbüz received 60,000 Turkish Lira (€5,860) in prize money, a gold medal and a cup. Koç was awarded 38,000 Lira (€3,710), a sil­ver medal and a cup as run­ner-up.

This year’s tri­umph brings Gürbüz’s vic­tory total at what is con­sid­ered to be the world’s old­est sport­ing event to four, includ­ing wins in 2011, 2012 and 2019. (Gürbüz also won in 2013 but was later stripped of this title after test­ing pos­i­tive for a banned sub­stance.)

“We would like to thank all our fans who sup­port us and are with us with their prayers,” Gürbüz wrote to his sup­port­ers on Facebook after the win.

He tri­umphed over 2,160 other entrants, who came from across the coun­try to the north­west­ern city of Edirne to com­pete in the cen­turies-old tour­na­ment. Due to the pan­demic, all par­tic­i­pants were required to sub­mit a neg­a­tive PCR test within 48 hours of the com­pe­ti­tion to par­tic­i­pate this year.

The three-day event, which UNESCO rec­og­nized in 2010 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, did not pass with­out drama. Recep Kara, the 2016 cham­pion, fainted dur­ing a match with Koç in the third round and was taken to the hos­pi­tal by ambu­lance.

One of the country’s lead­ing wrestlers, Ismail Balaban, from Antalya, who won the com­pe­ti­tion in 2013 and 2017 did not par­tic­i­pate in this year’s com­pe­ti­tion. The 33-year-old recently won Turkey’s pop­u­lar real­ity com­pe­ti­tion, Survivor.

Balaban’s time on the real­ity show was marred by con­tro­versy after insults were hurled at him by another com­peti­tor and the Kırkpınar gov­er­nor demanded the wrestler quit the hit tele­vi­sion show.

Thousands of fans from all cor­ners of Turkey trav­eled to Edirne for the 660^th Kırkpınar, which took place in a field in Sarayiçi, to watch the wrestlers com­pete.

Kırkpınar com­peti­tors wres­tle in tra­di­tional leather pants known as kıspet. The shirt­less wrestlers are drenched in olive oil to make it more dif­fi­cult for their oppo­nent to grip them and grap­ple until one of them is knocked onto his back. An esti­mated two tons of olive oil are used dur­ing the event.

The ori­gins of the com­pe­ti­tion date back to 1357 when a group of Ottoman sol­diers stopped near present-day Edirne. To pass the time, 40 of the sol­diers decided to wres­tle in pairs. After the rest had stopped, the last two wres­tled into the night and were found dead the next morn­ing.

There was no win­ner, but since then, the event has been held annu­ally, except for 2020, with par­tic­i­pants wrestling in pairs until only one man is left stand­ing.

Over the past 10 years, the com­pe­ti­tion has been notice­ably dom­i­nated by wrestlers from the coastal city of Antalya The Fatih Atlı, from Samsun, won the title in 2014 and Kara in 2016, who is from Ordu.

• Saily Sabah
• Hurriyet Daily News