National athletes from Van, Ayten Yobaş, Abdulsamet Duman and Emre Çınarağaç, aim for a gold medal in the Under-18 European Athletics Championships to be held in Italy.
National athletes, discovered during talent screenings at schools, achieved significant success in national and international championships.
Young athletes, who are entitled to wear the national team uniform with the degrees they have achieved, will participate in the Under-18 European Athletics Championships to be held in Italy between 16-19 July.
The athletes, who continue their activities in the high-altitude regions of the city under the supervision of national team coaches Münir Akkoyun and Mehmet Akkoyun, aim to win the gold medal in the championship and raise the Turkish flag.
Yobaş and Çınarağaç, who recently participated in the Under-18 Balkan Athletics Championship held in Slovenia on July 4, won the gold medal in the organization.
National athlete Yobaş told the AA correspondent that they have completed their preparation activities at high altitude for the European Championship.
Stating that he had a year full of success, Yobaş said:
"I became the champion by representing my province and my country in the 1500 meters at the Balkan Championships. I have the European Championship ahead of me, which will be held between 16-19 July. Here, too, I will represent my province and my country in the 1500 meters category. My goal is to represent my country in the best possible way by being among the top three in the European Championship. We continue to train 6 days a week for the European championship."
Stating that they train under difficult conditions, national athlete Emre Çınarağaç said, "It is much more difficult to do our training on cross country than on the flat road. We develop more because different muscle groups work. We choose the difficult for more situations. We do cross-country training in the mountains 3 days a week and track training 3 days a week. It is really difficult to run in the mountains in a temperature of about 30 degrees. Despite this, we continue our training without any excuses. Because our goals are big." he said.
17-year-old Abdulsamet Duman said, "My goal was to be selected for the national team and I achieved it. I was very proud to wear the national team uniform in the Balkan Championship held in Slovenia. I want to represent both my country and my province in the best way and get a medal in the European Championship, which is my second national team competition. With God's permission, we continue our activities in summer and winter. We are training at an altitude of approximately 2 thousand meters, we have breathing difficulties." he said.
Stating that they participated in the Balkan Championship held in Slovenia with 3 athletes from Van, national team coach Münir Akkoyun said, "We won 2 medals in the Balkan Championship. Our children will represent our city and our country in the Under-18 European Championship to be held in Italy in the coming days. Our athletes are important promising assets for our country. Hopefully, we will win the gold medal by representing our country in the best way in the championship." he said.
Explaining that they had a long preparation process, Akkoyun gave the following information about the training activities:
"We are slowly starting to see the fruits of the training we have done at high altitudes, in rugged areas and in difficult conditions in winter, on the summer tracks. Hopefully, we will receive the reward of our efforts at the European Championship to be held this month. We always have goals. I hope these children will participate in the World Championship and the Olympics."