National, Age Records Go Down At Turkish Winter Championships

2022 TURKISH LC WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS

• December 22nd & December 23rd
• Istanbul, Turkey
• LCM (50m)
• Results

The 2022 Turkish Long Course Winter Championships wrapped up from Istanbul late last month but not before several national records and age records bit the dust.

It was the men’s side of the house who collected the new marks over the course of the two-day affair, beginning with Emir Batur Albayrak‘s distance victory.

Competing in the men’s 1500m freestyle race, 15-year-old Albayrak fired off the fastest time of his young career, touching in 15:06.25. That not only took the gold but the time overtook the previous 15-16 age record of 15:14.04 Kuzey Tuncell put on the books just this past July.

Albayrak doubled up on his freestyle gold, taking the 800m freestyle event on day two. The teen produced a winning time of 7:59.34 to slice .23 off of the previous age record of 7:59.57.

In the 200m fly, it was Tuncer Berk Erturk who snagged a new age record, with the 15-year-old scoring silver in 2:00.51. Opening in 57.62 and closing in 1:02.89, Erturk finished behind winner Polat Uzer Turnali who touched in 1:59.94.

Another young gun in Demir Ozdemir did some damage in the men’s 100m freestyle, clocking a new lifetime best in the prelims. Touching in 52.64, the 14-year-old established a new age record, beating his own 52.68 from this past July. Ozdemir was slower in the final here, however, ultimately hitting 53.27 in the B-final.

Of note, Ozdemir was one of the standouts from Turkey’s Age Championships which took place in November. You can read more about that competition here.

Additional age records included Yavuz Omer Aga posting 25.65 to establish a new 50m fly record for 14-year-olds while Doruk Yogurtcuoglu of the same age logged a new 200m breast mark of 2:21.67. Sanberk Oktar broke the national record in the men’s 400m IM in a time of 4:20.89.

Aga was also dangerous in the 100m fly, logging 57.49 in the prelims to overtake the previous Turkish age record for 14-year-olds of 57.74 that had been in place since 2017.

On the open national record front, Berke Saka dipped under the previous Turkish standard of 1:59.89 to take the men’s 200m IM gold. Saka got to the wall in a time of 1:59,26, the fastest of his career, to now take over as the swiftest Turk in history.

The men’s 200m free saw Baturalp Unlu improve upon his own national record in the men’s 200m free, posting 1:47.00 as the only racer of the field to produce a time under 1:51.

Opening in 51.78 and closing in 55.22, Unlu shaved .08 off of his own past PB of 1:47.08 from 2020 to set the new Turkish national record.