Zeynep Ebrar Maraşlı, a first-year student at the IBU Faculty of Dental Medicine, won first place in the 8th Asteriks Cup Taekwondo Tournament and became champion in the Senior A F-62 Category.

The Taekwondo Tournament was organized in Nis, Serbia. Many athletes from Balkan and European countries took place in this tournament.

We congratulate our student Zeynep Ebrar and we, as IBU, wish her many successes in her education, sports, and private life.

Here is the full interview that we did with our student Zeynep Ebrar:

Zeynep Ebrar Maraşlı was born on the 6th of March, 2003, in Erzincan, Turkiye. She is a first-year student at the IBU Faculty of Dental Medicine.

She started this sport when she was 11 years old because she was overweight to the point of being obese.

“I reached 82 kilos. To get rid of this, I was introduced to taekwondo. I did a special workout with my trainer, lost 25 kilos, and managed to become one of the best in my weight class. I have been doing this sport for 10 years. I have been the national taekwondo athlete of Turkiye for 5 years and I have been fighting on behalf of the national team for years,” she said during an interview with IBU Media Center.

She highlighted that she has participated in many different tournaments during this period of 10 years and achieved a lot of success.

“I have managed to represent my country in many national and international arenas,” Zeynep Ebrar Maraşlı said.

“I have won many medals over the years, but the most important one is that last year I represented Turkey and became the Balkan champion and waved our flag. Finally, last December, I lost to my Serbian opponent in the semi-finals at the last second and brought a bronze medal to my country”.

Zeynep Ebrar Maraşlı highlighted that she sees this sport as a professional job, not as a hobby, and that she continues her training in Skopje every day. “I train intensively, sometimes with double training, sometimes with single training, and I want to continue as long as I do not get injured,” she added.

She concluded the interview with a short message to the younger generations and her friends:

“A sport keeps not only a person's body but also his mind fit. A sport gives a person discipline, determination, work, and order. So, everyone should engage in a sport. I want to emphasize that they should never give up on the path they believe in. If they want to achieve success in a path, they need to make a lot of effort for it, maybe as long as they work with determination for 1 year or 10 years, they will reach their goals and never give up.”