Kamal survives scare in Ulaanbaatar amid Turkiye gold rush
Friday, May 30, 2025 - 13:58 By Vinay Siwach
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (May 30) -- Turkiye captured all three Greco-Roman gold medals on offer on Friday with European champion Kerem KAMAL (TUR) surviving a tough final to win at 63kg, and Paris Olympians Enes BASAR (TUR) and Hamza BAKIR (TUR) winning at 60kg and 130kg respectively.
Kamal, who won European Championships gold in dominant fashion, could not replicate that performance from April but still managed to win gold. In the final, he survived a scare against Asian Championships bronze medalist Hanjae CHUNG (KOR), winning 6-6 on criteria, thanks to a foul from Chung.
Both had wrestled in the group stages as well as this weight category only had seven wrestlers and were divided into two groups. Kamal came out on top 6-3 in that match.
But the final began with Chung scoring a takedown in the first minute and then adding another point when he was given the par terre advantage. However, he failed to score from that position.
In the second period, Kamal scored a push from par terre and had Chung's back on the mat for two points. He then lifted Chung upside down and completed a throw during which Chung committed a defensive leg foul.
Korea challenged the call but lost which gave Kamal a 6-4 lead. Chung tried to score and during the final 10 seconds, he pushed Kamal to the zone and the Turkish wrestler lost his balance, giving up a takedown.
Chung tied it 6-6 but Kamal led on criteria as Chung had committed the leg foul earlier. Chung realized it later that he was losing the final.
"I think it was a bit of a misjudgment because I thought I was winning and I didn't try hard for last 7 seconds at the end," Chung said. "I'm training hard with [former world champion] Hansu RYU (KOR) as my role model, and I'm trying to copy his style a lot."
For Kamal, the tournament was an eye-opener, especially for his performance against the Asian wrestlers.
"It was a very difficult tournament," Kamal said. "From the first round to the final match, I had very strong and very tough opponents. It was one of the hardest matches I've had this year. Winning is important, but in this tournament I realized that I have many mistakes. I'm thinking that I'm going to watch all my matches over and over again and analyze them and try to wrestle in a way that is more error-free and less pointless."
As he gears up to win his first senior world title in Zagreb later this September, Kamal is now wary of his opponents from Asia and wants to tackle them with more conviction.
"All my opponents are Asian," he said. "Kyrgyz, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Iranian. These are my strongest opponents. When you look at it, most of my opponents are from Asia, so I try to wrestle like Asians. I try to train like them, because they are very difficult to keep up with, they are very active. But as I said, as much as I can stop them, as much as I can do, as long as I can, I will continue to wrestle with them and wrestle like him."
Despite his close matches against Chung, Kamal looked in supreme form, especially while defending on par terre, as he captured his second Ranking Series gold medal of the year. His first gold was in Tirana, Albania.
"I don't think about it there [on the mat], to be honest, because I'm in a completely negative position," he said. "I'm trying to get out of it by doing all the weird things I can. The important thing is that I don't get scored there. It doesn't matter how I do it, what I do, the important thing is not to give points to my opponent and to continue in that way. So I'm very happy that I was able to do that."
Enes BASAR (TUR), blue, won gold medal at 60kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)
Basar, who was at the Paris Olympics at 60kg, won four bouts in the day to claim the gold medal. He began with an 8-3 win over Kurmanbek ZHAPAROV (KGZ) but his second against Akyl SULAIMANOV (KGZ) tested him to the limits. He made two comebacks to win 16-5, using a strong gut-wrench.
He followed that win by beating SURAJ (IND), 8-0, in a minute and 13 seconds before finishing his campaign with a 10-2 win over Ganbayar NAMSRAI (MGL).
Hamza BAKIR (TUR) claimed the 130kg gold medal in Ulaanbaatar. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)
The most dominant run of the day came from Hamza BAKIR (TUR) at 130kg, as he won all his four bouts via technical superiority.
In his first bout, he gave up a point for passivity but still managed to win 9-1 against Erlan MANATBEKOV (KGZ). That was the only point he gave in the competition, winning his next three bouts via technical superiority.
He defeated Turbat BATBAYAR (MGL), 8-0, in Round 2, PREM (IND) with identical scoreline in Round 3 and in Round 5, he won against Nambardagva BATBAYAR (MGL), 8-0.
RESULTS
60kg
GOLD: Enes BASAR (TUR)
SILVER: SURAJ (IND)
BRONZE: Akyl SULAIMANOV (KGZ)
63kg
GOLD: Kerem KAMAL (TUR) df. Hanjae CHUNG (KOR), 6-6
BRONZE: Aref MOHAMMADI (QAT) df. Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI),
130kg
GOLD: Hamza BAKIR (TUR)
SILVER: Nambardagva BATBAYAR (MGL)
BRONZE: Erlan MANATBEKOV (KGZ)
Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB) became the first Serbian Freestyle wrestler to enter final of European Championships. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kostadin Andonov)
Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA) tries to defend an attack from Ali RAHIMZADA (AZE) in the 65kg semifinal. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)
Zelimkhan KHADJIEV (FRA) defeated Ion MARCU (MDA) 7-0 in the 79kg semifinal. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)
Akhmed USMANOV (UWW) defends an attack from Mohammad MOTTAGHINIA (ESP) in the 79kg semifinal. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)
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