Mehmet Esenceli

Mehmet Esenceli (* 1940 in Kahramanmaraş ) is a former Turkish wrestler and two-time European flyweight champion in free style.

Career

Mehmet Esenceli grew up in Kahramanmaras where she started as a teenager with the rings . He developed into an outstanding freestyle wrestler and was accepted into the Turkish national team in 1959 by head coach Nuri Boytorun. There he was led to the top of the world by coaches and former world class wrestlers Yaşar Doğu and Celal Atik . In 1964 he was Balkan flyweight champion and started in 1965 for the first time in a world championship. In Manchester , however, he still had to learn a lot, because he only achieved one draw and had to be satisfied with 12th place after two defeats.

At the next international championship, the 1966 European championship in Karlsruhe , Mehmet already showed what he was made of, as he was European champion there with three wins and one draw against Paul Neff from Schifferstadt . At the World Championships of the same year in Toledo ( Ohio ) he met only four fights from non-European opponents, won three times, but had to retire after a defeat against the South Korean Chang Chang-Sun in the fourth round and came in fourth.

In 1967 Esenceli defended the 1966 European Championship title in Istanbul , although he lost to Paul Neff on points. At the World Cup in New Delhi , however, he disappointed and was eliminated after the 2nd round. Against Paul Neff he lost again on points. It remained for him the 10th place.

In 1968 and 1969 Esenceli finished third at the European Championships in Skoplje and Sofia , where he suffered his third defeat against Paul Neff in Skoplje.

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City there was the next big disappointment for Esenceli, who apparently only got along well at the European Championships. After a defeat in the first round against the Mongols Süchbaataryn Sürendschaw , he wrestled against Paul Neff, was eliminated and only came in 15th.

Interestingly, Mehmet Esenceli didn't get along with Paul Neff. He faced him in five international championships, losing three times and only drawing twice. This was also the main reason why Esenceli never won a medal at World Championships or Olympic Games.

After the end of his international wrestling career, Mehmet Esenceli became a very successful wrestling trainer in İskenderun .

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, F = free style, Fl = flyweight, back then up to 52 kg body weight)

• 1964, 1st place , Balkan Championship in Constanța , F, Fl;
• 1965, 12th place , World Cup in Manchester , F, Fl, with a draw against Gheorghe Tapalaga, Romania and defeats against Richard Sanders , USA and Baju Baew , Bulgaria ;
• 1966, 1st place , EM in Karlsruhe , F, Fl, with victories over Jusuf Josufow, Bulgaria, Lászlo Ölveti , Hungary and Leslaw Kropp, Poland and a draw against Paul Neff , FRG ;
• 1966, 4th place , World Cup in Toledo ( Ohio ), F, Fl, with victories over Yasuo Katsumura, Japan and John Krause, South Africa , a draw against Chasen Jafari , Iran and a defeat against Chang Chang-Sun, South Korea ;
• 1967, 1st place , EM in Istanbul , F, Fl, with victories over Leonid Barschukow, USSR , Gheorghe Tapalaga, Baju Baew and Márton Erdős, Hungary and despite a defeat against Paul Neff;
• 1967, 10th place , World Cup in New Delhi , F, Fl, after defeats against Gheorghe Tapalaga and Paul Neff;
• 1968, 3rd place , EM in Skoplje , F, Fl, with victories over Márton Erdős, Josef Hutter, Switzerland , Jürgen Kalkowski , GDR and Baju Baew and a defeat against Paul Neff;
• 1968, 15th place , OS in Mexico City , F, Fl, after a defeat against Süchbaataryn Sürendschaw , Mongolia and a draw against Paul Neff;
• 1969, 3rd place , EM in Sofia , F, Ba, with victories over Zbigniew Żedzicki , Poland, Athanassios Zafiropoulos, Greece and Zivko Jankovski, Yugoslavia , one draw against Horst Mayer , GDR and one defeat against Jancho Patrikow , Bulgaria.

swell

• various issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from 1964 to 1969
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976

Web links

• Brief portrait of Mehmet Esenceli in Turkish
• Mehmet Esenceli in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )