Mikail Ozerler

Mikail Özerler (born Mihael Žgank on February 1, 1994 in Celje ) is a judoka who competed for Slovenia until 2017 . His greatest success was silver at the 2017 World Championships. He has been fighting for Turkey since 2018, and in 2019 he won the European Championships.

Athletic career

The 1.81 m tall Mihael Žgank has been fighting internationally in the middleweight division, the weight class up to 90 kilograms , since 2011 . In 2011 and 2012 he won bronze at the U20 European Championships. In 2013 he won his first Slovenian championship title in the adult class, more followed in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, with the 2016 and 2017 titles in the light heavyweight division. In 2014 he was third in the U23 European Championships. In June 2015, the European Championships took place as part of the European Games 2015 in Baku. Mihael Žgank lost to the Georgian Warlam Liparteliani in the quarterfinals and lost to the Dutchman Guillaume Elmont in the round of hope , making Žgank seventh. BothAt the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, he lost to the Serbian Aleksandar Kukolj in his opening fight . At the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Žgank defeated South Korean Gwak Dong-han in the quarter-finals and Aleksandar Kukolj in the semifinals. In the final he met the second Serb Nemanja Majdov , Žgank received the silver medal.

After his success at the World Championships, the Turkish Judo Association approached Mihael Žgank and offered him better training opportunities and financial support. In 2018 he changed name and nationality and competed as Mikail Özerler for Turkey at the 2018 World Championships in Baku. In the last sixteen he was eliminated from the Spaniard Nikoloz Sherazadishvili . In December 2018, Özerler won his first Turkish championship title.

In April 2019 Özerler won the Grand Prix tournament in Antalya. The 2019 European Games took place in Minsk in June, as part of which the 2019 European Judo Championships were held. Özerler defeated Aleksandar Kukolj in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals he defeated the Azerbaijani Mammadali Mehdiyev , in the semifinals the Russian Khussein Chalmursajew . With his final victory over the Israeli Li Kochman , Özerler won the gold medal. Two months later he retired from the World Championships in Tokyo in the round of 16 against Mammadali Mehdiyev.

Web links

Tournament results at judoinside.com
Mihael Žgank in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
Judo in the time of Covid-19: Mikael Ozerler aka Miha Zgank (Interview, published on April 17, 2020 at judoinside.com)

Footnotes

↑ Career overview at judoinside.com
↑ ^a ^b ^c match balance at judoinside.com
↑ Excerpt from the interview of April 17, 2020: In Turkey, they have centralized training. They offered me financial support. By joining them, I would be able to focus on training and not worry about anything else. (In Turkey the training is centralized. You offered me financial support. If I joined you, I would be able to focus entirely on the training and not have to worry about anything else.)

personal data
SURNAME	Özerler, Mikail
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Žgank, Mihael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Turkish judoka, formerly Slovenian judoka
DATE OF BIRTH	February 1, 1994
PLACE OF BIRTH	Celje

[1] Career overview at judoinside.com

[Kampfbilanz-2] tch balance at judoinside.com

[3] Excerpt from the interview of April 17, 2020: In Turkey, they have centralized training. They offered me financial support. By joining them, I would be able to focus on training and not worry about anything else. (In Turkey the training is centralized. You offered me financial support. If I joined you, I would be able to focus entirely on the training and not have to worry about anything else.)