Women: Turkey (TUR)

 

Coaches: Kadir AYAR and Senar DAYAT

 

Key Players: Ceyhan COSKUNSU (goalkeeper), Serap YIGIT (right wing)

 

Path to Buenos Aires 2018: Re-Allocation Place

 

With the young team for Argentina only formed in June 2018, it is hard to say what to expect of the Turkey side in Buenos Aires but coming from a country with a wide range of beaches and history in the sport then anything is possible.

 

Turkey may wonder if they are just playing a Pan American tournament once they arrive in Argentina as three of the five teams they face in their preliminary group hail from South America (Paraguay, Venezuela and Argentina). The remaining two – Hong Kong and Netherlands – will present very different challenges and looking at the results from their first-ever championship it is clear that they will find it tough against the Europeans.

 

At the 2018 EHF EURO Women's U18 Beach Handball Championship in Montenegro they started by losing all four of their preliminary matches 2:0 (vs Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Hungary) to go into the 13-17 placement round where they lost to Romania and then Greece 2:0, but a 2:0 win over the hosts in the 16/17 placement match ensured they ended with a victory.

 

Turkey have a joint coaching team of Kadir Ayar and Senar Dayat. Kadir started his coaching back in 2003, winning numerous Turkey Cup and Super League championships, while Dayat participated in numerous championships as a player where she won EHF EURO silver in 2002, World Championship silver in 2004 and World Games bronze medal in 2005. As a coach, Dayat guided the U19 side to a bronze medal at the 2013 EHF EURO Women's Beach Handball Championship in Denmark.

 

“Argentina and the Netherlands are favourites in our group,” said Ayar to IHF.info ahead of their trip to Buenos Aires. “Firstly though, we want to qualify out of our group – that is our first goal.”

 

The coaching duo started their preparation for the Youth Olympic Games on 10 September with a training camp in the town of Koycegiz – a district of Mugla Province in the Aegean region of Turkey set on a lake and used it to focus on physical performance and tactics rather than friendly matches or tournaments.

 

The squad of nine chosen for the Games includes players from the municipal sports clubs (BSK) and youth and sports clubs (GSK) of Kastamonu GSK, Samsun GSK, Muratpasa BLD SK, Uskudar Bel SK and Ismir BBSK.

 

Friendly matches have been organised against Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Hungary on the Buenos Aires sand before the team open their Youth Olympic Games campaign at 10 in the morning on Monday 8 October against the hosts on the show court.

 

"Once we arrive in Argentina, we will get our athletes adjusted to the time difference,” said Kadir. “We would like to represent our country in the best way – we will fight for Turkish handball and come back to our country with the best results.”

 

Follow Turkey at Buenos Aires through their official website, Facebook and Twitter channels.

Group at Buenos Aires 2018
Group B: Netherlands (NED), Argentina (ARG), Venezuela (VEN), Paraguay (PAR), Hong Kong (HKG), Turkey (TUR)

Preliminary Group B: Match Schedule
All times local

Monday 8 October

10:00    ARG vs TUR    

14:30    TUR vs VEN    

 

Tuesday 9 October

12:30    NED vs TUR    

17:00    TUR vs PAR    

 

Wednesday 10 October

10:00    HKG vs TUR

 

Photo: Turkey Handball Federation