Turkish power at the Balkan XC Champs

Turkish cross country team topped of the nearly-all podiums at 60th edition of Balkan Cross Championships in Cubrija. Tiny Serbian city Cubrija welcomed the XC runners from all across the Balkans in 5th of November. Turkey, one of the regular contestant of the event, have completed their greatest cross-country achievement of all-time. Turkish XC team got 20 out of 24 possible medals or team podium places in one day while totally outclassed to their rivals including Balkan athletics powers Romania and Serbia. At the men’s senior race, Turkey’s squad made a podium sweep as Ramazan Özdemir crowned as new Balkan cross country champion. 25-year old Özdemir previously clinched U23 title at the same championship. His team-mates Ömer Tuncer and Alper Demir also finished in top three positions. Same pictures happened at U-23 Women and U-23 Men races. This categories also dominated by Turkish runners, additionally gold-bronze medals came from each junior races. Only individual race not won by Turkish contestant was the senior women category that clinched by Ancuta Bobocel from Romania, but Turkish runner Sevilay Eytemiş took the silver medal behind her. After completion of six disciplines, every single team crown took by Turkey, which means they totalled 20 podium-places at the end. This is a huge achievement for Turkish athletics, also a record for Balkan XC Champs history by most medals in a single event – previous record was 19 by Romania.