The 2024 Balkan Championship, hosted by the Turkish Equestrian Federation, was held at the Kemer Equestrian Sports Club. Romania won the gold medal in the Show Jumping Competitions, which took place between September 4-8 and whose finals were held today, while Turkey won the silver and bronze medals. Turkish Equestrian Federation President Hasan Engin Tuncer said, “This is a perfect organization that we have held at the Kemer Equestrian Sports Club. They say that we have revived the Balkans from the beginning and given them new and fresh blood.”
Hosted by the Turkish Equestrian Federation and organized in cooperation with the European Equestrian Federation, the 2024 Balkan Championship was organized at the Kemer Equestrian Sports Club. Held once a year since 1968, the Balkan Championships held in Turkey featured athletes from 7 countries, namely Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia and Turkey. The final excitement was experienced in the Show Jumping Competitions held between September 4-8. Romanian athlete Constantin Cojocariu won the gold medal in the Masters category with his horse Quaid-Moritz, while Burak Azak won the silver medal with his horse Katy Perry, and Barkın Aydın won the bronze medal with his horse Aurore du Noyer. The event, sponsored by Demirören Medya and Defender, was presented by the President of the Turkish Equestrian Federation Hasan Engin Tuncer, President of the Romanian Federation Marilena Mladin, Revna Demirören and Erdoğan Demirören.
‘THEY SAY WE ARE REVIVING THE BALKANS’
The President of the Turkish Equestrian Federation Hasan Engin Tuncer said, ‘It is a perfect organization that we have organized at Kemer Equestrian Sports Club. We are not the only ones saying this, our guests who come, our guests who come from abroad, from the Balkans say the same. They say that we have revived the Balkans from the beginning, that we have given them new and fresh blood, in such a big and beautiful organization. Our audience is really perfect, there is not even any place left to park cars. This is a sport that brings very different segments together. I think that if we organize beautiful organizations like this, there will be very good results in the future. However, of course, I say that sports in the equestrian and horsemanship community is only 20 percent of this business. There is a very big economy behind this. Especially horse breeding. We are working very hard on this. We have very good first places, second place, third place. But as we see in the masters today, some countries have made a lot of investment in horses and are reaping the fruits of this. We are a little late there. Of course, we will start supporting too. “When I arrived, the first thing I did was to include them in school sports, by specifically requesting it from our ministry,” he said.
‘Türkiye SHOWED HOW GREAT AND SUPERIOR IT IS IN ORGANIZATION’
Tuncer said, ‘We gave the show jumping flag to Serbia today and the dressage flag to Bulgaria. Let’s see if they can organize a good organization but of course Turkey showed here once again how big and superior it is in terms of organization. All of them are fans, all countries, fans, riders are fans, they say they want to come here again next year. But of course we gave the flag to Serbia and hopefully they will represent the Balkan Championship in the best way. Apart from this, next year, with our guidance for 2 years, you see there are ponies here, ponies came from 2 countries from the Balkans, we have our own ponies. We have also been supporting Pony as our own company in Turkey for 4 years. In every meeting we have held in the Balkans and Europe, in the meeting I went to, they said this; We have neglected Pony too much, we need to focus on Pony from now on. We also held the Balkan Conference with countries. and what was discussed there was this; “They expressed their goodwill by saying, ‘Let’s definitely organize a Pony Championship and start it in Turkey.'”
‘MY GOAL IS TO LEAD OUR COUNTRY TO BETTER SUCCESS IN THE INTERNATIONAL AREA’
Burak Azak, who won the silver medal by coming second in the championship, said, ‘This year, my horse and I have been in very good harmony. We were already the champions of Turkey before this competition, we are the 2024 champions of Turkey. I was expecting this result, in fact I was expecting to win. It was not luck, sometimes you do your best but you can knock down an obstacle or the person behind you can be better than you. Therefore, it was luck for our Romanian friend. I also finished second, which is a very good success for us. My next goal is to prepare for better competitions with my horse and hopefully lead our country to better successes in the international arena.’
‘HORSE BREEDING IS A FAMILY TRADITION FOR US’
Bronze medal winner Barkın Aydın said, ‘We finished the Balkan Championship in 3rd place, we had great races. We only had one unfortunate obstacle in the 4 courses, but of course, let’s say it’s a twist of fate. I’ve been doing this sport for 30 years. I’m a horseman’s grandson, I was born and raised around horses. That’s why horsemanship is a family tradition for us.’
