The historic Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Festival this year introduced a league-style qualification system, with 28 chief wrestlers competing in the preliminary rounds before the regular wrestling calendar kicks off.
The Turkish Traditional Wrestling Federation initiated the league format last year, consisting of seven stages.
According to the format, the top 32 wrestlers in the league points table will directly qualify for Kırkpınar, while eight wrestlers of the same weight class will be determined through preliminary rounds.
In compliance with the rules, on July 4, 28 chief wrestlers will compete at the Sarayiçi Arena for the 663rd Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Festival.
Two days before the chief wrestling bouts commence on July 6, the wrestlers will have their first encounter at this year's Kırkpınar festival.
Orhan Okulu secured direct participation in Kırkpınar by topping the league table with 71 points, followed by Ali Gürbüz with 62 points, Serhat Gökmen and Hüseyin Gümüşalan with 42 points each, and last year's chief wrestler Yusuf Can Zeybek with 40 points.
As a result, the 32 chief wrestlers who will directly participate in the 663rd Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Festival and their categories are as follows:
1st Category: Orhan Okulu, Ali Gürbüz, Serhat Gökmen, Hüseyin Gümüşalan, Yusuf Can Zeybek, İsmail Balaban, İsmail Koç and Serdar Yıldırım.
2nd Category: Mehmet Yeşil Yeşil, Mustafa Batu, Ertuğrul Dağdeviren, Fatih Atlı, Nedim Gürel, Mustafa Taş, Mustafa Doğan Özkaya and Ali İhsan Batmaz.
3rd Category: Enes Doğan, Osman Kan, Osman Aynur, Mustafa Arslan, Turan Balaban, Furkan Durmuş Altın, Özkan Yılmaz and Süleyman Başar.
4th Category: Yıldıray Akın, Ünal Karaman, Kürşat Şevki Korkmaz, Tanju Gemici, Recep Kara, Recep Taslak, Emre Erkal and Faruk Akkoyun.
According to the federation's competition pairing rules, the top eight wrestlers from the top 32 will form the first category, the second eight will form the second category, and so forth.
The wrestlers from the fourth category and the eight wrestlers from the preliminary rounds will compete in the first round.
The winners of this round will form the fourth category in the second round.
Pairings between the first and fourth categories and the second and third categories will be determined by drawing lots.
After this round, the wrestlers who advance will be divided into the first eight, who will be in the first category, and the other eight wrestlers, who will be in the second category.
In the quarterfinals and subsequent rounds, a mixed drawing of lots will be applied in a single category.
Ibrahim Türkiş, president of the Turkish Traditional Wrestling Federation, stated to Anadolu Agency (AA) that wrestling fans will witness very exciting matches this year.
Türkiş emphasized that thanks to the league format, traditional oil wrestling tournaments are being taken as seriously as the Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Festival itself.
"Our goal with the league format was to motivate the athletes, make wrestling outside Kırkpınar more active and ensure the long-term sustainability of wrestling. Thanks to the league, we have gained matches that are almost as good as Kırkpınar. There are serious matches in the league similar to Kırkpınar," he said.
Türkiş emphasized that to give Kırkpınar the status of the "Olympics of oil wrestling," they switched to such a format, considering both the wrestler and the organization side, as well as the devoted wrestling audience.
Indicating that the increasing number of participating wrestlers has become unmanageable, Türkiş said: "Last year, 3,500 wrestlers participated. We had even started to consider 'Should we start the wrestling on Thursday?' The wrestling went on until midnight. We wanted Kırkpınar to have an Olympic status in every category. We wanted Kırkpınar to be a place that deserves it. If we hadn't changed the rules, 5,000 people would have come to wrestle at Kırkpınar this year. How would this organization be managed?"