The Turkish wrestling legend Taha Akgul has severely injured his shoulder during the national training camp. Akgul who has won gold for Turkey in the 125kg freestyle at the Rio Olympic and recently won the world championship 2019 silver underwent surgery yesterday and will have to stay away from the mat for minimum 12 weeks.
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The Turkish Wrestling Federation confirmed the news by releasing a statement about the Akgul’s surgery. ” Our national asset Taha Akgul had a successful shoulder surgery this morning. He will soon return to the mat and continue his preparations for the Olympics. We are 100% confident that he will represent Turkey successfully in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics”.
Akgul is considered as legend of the Turkish wrestling as he has won 5 world championship medals, 6 European Championship gold medals along with the Rio Olympic Gold medal in 2016. Akgul also won the UWW World Championships in 2014 and 2015. In 2019 Nur-Sultan world championships he had to settle for the silver medal as he lost out to Geno PETRIASHVILI of Georgia in a very close championship bout. He is currently ranked number 2 in the world in the UWW 125kg rankings.
