Erkan Taş Defeats Feyzullah Aktürk to Claim Kırkpınar Crown
The 26-year-old from Sinop defeated Feyzullah Aktürk in the 49th minute of the final to win his first Kırkpınar championship and the prestigious gold belt.
Erkan Taş won his first Kırkpınar gold belt after defeating Feyzullah Aktürk in the final of the 665th Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Festival in Edirne, Turkey.
The 26-year-old from Sinop secured the championship in the 49th minute at the Sarayiçi Er Meydanı after the 30-minute regulation period ended without a winner.
See Also: Kırkpınar WinnersDuring the subsequent point-scoring period, Aktürk attempted to bring Taş down with a single-leg attack. Taş escaped the move, countered and scored the decisive point.
Taş followed a demanding route to the final, defeating two-time Kırkpınar champion İsmail Balaban in the opening round and two-time winner Mehmet Yeşil Yeşil in the next.
He then eliminated four-time champion Ali Gürbüz in the quarterfinals. Taş brought Gürbüz down with a çangal, or hooking, maneuver during the point-scoring period of their 50-minute match.
In the semifinal, Taş defeated Seçkin Duman with a kasnak-paça maneuver shortly after their match entered the point-scoring phase.
Aktürk reached the final after defeating Mustafa Batu, Yıldıray Pala, defending champion Orhan Okulu and Mustafa Taş. Okulu had beaten Aktürk in the 2025 Kırkpınar final.
Aktürk finished second, while Seçkin Duman and Mustafa Taş shared third place. Youth and Sports Minister Osman Aşkın Bak presented the gold belt to the new champion during the closing ceremony.
Taş said the victory fulfilled a childhood ambition rooted in his family’s wrestling tradition. He thanked his team, Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and Mustafa Taş, his cousin and mentor.
Born in Sinop in 2000, Erkan Taş progressed through oil wrestling’s age and weight divisions before winning the Başaltı category at the 663rd Kırkpınar in 2024. That result elevated him to the highest division and gave him the title of başpehlivan, or chief wrestler.
Later that year, he earned his first championship in the top division by defeating Mustafa Taş in the final of the Bahçelievler Kocasinan Oil Wrestling competition.
He continued his rise with victories at the Dikmen, Ödemiş Gölcük and Osmancık competitions in 2025 before winning at Edremit in 2026.
The annual Kırkpınar festival is one of the most prominent cultural traditions in Turkey. Wrestlers wear leather trousers known as kispet and cover their bodies with olive oil, making grip, balance and technique central to the contest.
Kırkpınar
Kırkpınar is Turkey’s historic oil wrestling festival, held annually near Edirne and regarded as one of the world’s oldest continuously organized sporting events. Wrestlers, known as pehlivans, compete bare-chested while wearing heavy leather trousers called kispet and covering their bodies with olive oil. Matches demand strength, balance, endurance and technique, since the oil makes gripping difficult. The festival also includes ceremonial music, processions and traditional rituals. Its top competitor is crowned başpehlivan, or chief wrestler, and receives the gold belt at the festival’s conclusion. Kırkpınar was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.
Organizers brought two metric tons of olive oil, supplied by the agricultural cooperative Trakya Birlik, to the arena for the 2026 competition.
The festival, with its ceremonial music, prayers, processions and master-apprentice wrestling tradition, was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010.
Taş said his next objective is to secure permanent possession of the gold belt. Under rules revised before this year’s festival, wrestlers may retain the belt after winning three consecutive Kırkpınar championships or five titles in different years.
The festival concluded when Taş lowered the Turkish flag that defending champion Okulu had raised during the opening ceremony.
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