Med games come to an end, Turks run riot on penultimate day

The Mediterranean Games in Mersin, which began on June 30, came to an end with great success on Sunday after the finals in the men's and women's singles badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, bocce, men's and women's handball final and women's volleyball -- and the grand closing ceremony. But Saturday, the penultimate day of the games, belonged to Turkey, which clinched a total of nine gold medals. Cagla Buyukakcay crushed Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-1, 6-3 in the women's singles tennis final at New Center Court, thus making history by winning the first-ever singles tennis gold for Turkey at the Mediterranean Games. Turkey also won its first Med Games gold in bocce when Deniz Demir beat San Marino's Anna Maria Ciucci 12-9 in the women's event. Lamia Aissioui of Algeria was the second runner-up. Kenyan-born middle distance runner Ilham Tanui Ozbilen comfortably won the men's 800-meter final in 1:44 minutes at Nevin Yanıt Athletics Complex, breaking the 34-year-old Med Games record in the process. The former record of 1:45.20 was set by Yugoslav Dragan Zivotic at the games held in Split in 1979. Turkey's Burcu Ayhan Yuksel and Ana Simic of Croatia won a gold medal each after both cleared a height of 1.94 meters in the women's high jump. The two high jumpers failed in other attempts and were declared joint gold winners. Murat Giginoglu and Selcuk Sekerci shot out Spaniards Adrian Gavira and Christian Garcia in two straight sets in the men's beach volleyball final to win Turkey's first-ever Med Games gold in volleyball. Turkey also clinched gold in the men's double table tennis event as Bora Vang and Ahmet Li whitewashed Italians Mihai Razvan Bobocica-Niagol Stoyanov in three straight sets. This was also Turkey's first-ever gold in this event at the Med Games. In women's doubles badminton, Ozge Bayrak and Neslihan Yigit overcame Emilie Lefel and Audrey Fontaine of France in two straight sets for gold. Host Turkey clinched two gold medals in Karate. Edip Buran beat Shymaa Alsayed of Egypt 2-1 for the men's 68-kilogram gold, while Hafsa Seyda Burucu also outlasted Irene Colomar Costa of Spain in the same weight division in the women's event. Turkey won the silver in the men's 4x400-meter relay. The Turkish team comprising Mehmet Guzel, Bugrahan Kocabeyoglu, Halit Kilic and Yavuz Candan clocked a time of 3:05.28 minutes. The race was won by Lorenzo Valentini, Isalbet Juarez, Michele Tricca and Matteo Galvan of the Italian team in 3:04.61 while Dimitrios Gravalos, Petros Kyriakidis, Periklis Iakovakis and Konstantinos Nakopoulos won bronze for Greece. Yunus Emre Gungor won the bronze in the men's singles raff equestrian event for Turkey after beating Maltese Stefan Farrugia 12-4.