Haydar Zafer

Haydar Zafer (* 1927 in Bolu ; † 1994 ) was a Turkish wrestler.

Career

Haydar Zafer grew up in Bolu and started there as a teenager with Turkish oil wrestling. After 1945 he was also involved in Olympic wrestling. He preferred the free style, but also wrestled in the Greco-Roman style. In 1949 he was accepted into the Turkish national team and looked after by Nuri Boytorun. In 1951 he played his first international championship in Helsinki and immediately became world champion in the middleweight, free style. Since there were far fewer international title fights than today, Haydar Zafer was only able to take part in three international championships.

At the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 , he could not prevail in the middleweight division. After three wins, he lost to Iranian Gholam Reza Takhti , whom he had defeated at the 1951 World Cup, on points and only finished 5th.

At the 1955 World Championships in Karlsruhe he started in the Greco-Roman style in the light heavyweight division, but did not get beyond 11th place.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, F = freestyle, GR = Greco-Roman style, Mi = middleweight, Hs = light heavyweight, then up to 79 kg or 87 kg body weight)

• 1951, 1st place , World Championships in Helsinki , F, Wed, with victories over Göte Ekström, Sweden , Aarno Seppälä, Finland and Gholam Reza Takhti , Iran ;
• 1952, 5th place , OS in Helsinki, F, Wed, with victories over Eduardo Assam, Mexico , Adalberto Lepri, Italy and Carel Reitz, South Africa and one defeat against Takhti;
• 1955, 11th place , World Championships in Karlsruhe , GR, Hs, with victory over Eugen Wiesberger, Austria and defeats against Adelmo Bulgarelli , Italy and Veikko Lahti , Finland

Most important international battles

• 1950, Turkey - FRG , F, Wed, points winner over Gustav Gocke ,
• 1952, Turkey - FRG, F, Wed, points winner over Gustav Gocke,
• 1953, Sweden - Turkey, F, Hs, shoulder defeat against Wiking Palm ,
• 1953, Sweden - Turkey, GR, Hs, point defeat against Karl-Erik Nilsson ,
• 1955, Turkey - Sweden, GR, Hs, point defeat against Nilsson

Web links

Short biography of Haydar Zafer in Turkish with picture