Olympic Champion Gazoz returns to lead Turkish team in 2022

Turkey has announced its recurve teams for the start of the international season.

Recurve men’s world number two and reigning Olympic Champion Mete Gazoz leads the pack of six selected. He is joined by Samet Ak and Efe Gurkan Maras in the men’s team, while two-time Olympian Yasemin Anagoz, Ezgi Basaran and Asli Er will represent the women.

At 22 years old, Gazoz is the oldest of the group.

As well as taking that historic individual victory, Turkey’s first archery medal at the Games, Mete and Yasemin also finished in fourth place in the mixed team event at Tokyo 2020. Samet was one of Gazoz’s teammates when Turkey secured recurve men’s team gold at the fourth stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Berlin, Germany.

This marks the first senior call up for both Maras in the men’s line-up and Er in the women’s. The former has international experience in youth competitions while the latter has never donned a Turkish shirt at an event before.

Basaran, who has been on the edge of team selections for a few seasons with one prior Hyundai Archery World Cup stage appearance on her resume, qualified as the top recurve woman.

The selections were held as part of the Turkish Archery Federation’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games preparation camp at the Gloria Sports Arena in Belek, Antalya, not far from the competition field that will host this week’s Spring Arrows world ranking event and the first stage of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup. 

The first section of the camp saw Turkish archers practise with 10 members of the Great Britain squad, before moving on to the second element, the national team selection.

Eligible archers were tested and evaluated over 20 parameters, including their performance in conditions of varying high-speed wind and cold weather.

The international season begins on 18-24 April with the first stage of the 2022 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

Photos courtesy Turkish Archery Federation.

Turkey team for 2022

As of the results of trials in March 2022.

Recurve men

• Mete Gazoz
• Samet Ak
• Efe Gurkan Maras

Recurve women

• Ezgi Basaran
• Asli Er
• Yasemin Anagoz