Türkiye Takes Two of the Top Three at the 54th Balkan Optimist Championship

By Sailing Times Newsroom·14 September 2026·1 min read

Türkiye’s Optimist sailors came home from Volos with two spots on the podium and a strong showing further down the fleet, as the 54th Balkan Sailing Championship wrapped up on the Greek coast after four days of racing.

Emir Tombuloğlu took second in the Optimist general classification, with Eren Kaan Erendemir close behind in third, giving Türkiye two of the top three places in the region’s biggest Optimist fleet event. In the girls’ division, İrem Arkun finished eighth, a solid result in a fleet drawn from eight countries around the Balkans and the wider region.

The Turkish contingent sailed under the national team banner coordinated through the Turkish Sailing Federation, with several of the athletes, Tombuloğlu, Erendemir and Arkun among them, representing Galatasaray’s sailing section. For a fleet built almost entirely of sailors still working their way up through the Optimist ranks toward the classes that follow, a Balkan Championship podium is exactly the kind of result a national program points to as proof the pipeline is working.