Turkey Announces Goodwill Games Wrestling Lineup, Led by Olympian Dogan and European Champion Polatci

The Turkish wrestling federation provided its tentative lineup for the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York City, which will feature world-class athletes in every weight class.

Leading the team from Turkey will be Harun Dogan at 58 kg/127.75 pounds, who placed third in the 1995 World Championships and fourth in the 1996 Olympic Games. Dogan was second in 1996 European Championships.

A talented young star on the Turkish team is 1998 European champion Aydin Polatci at 130 kg/286 lbs. Polatci was the 1997 Junior World Champion (for athletes 20 and under), and was third in the 1997 World Military Championships.

The entire Turkey team will feature talented young athletes expected to challenge for medals at the 2000 Olympic Games. Many have already placed at the European Championships in recent years.

Melvana Kulac, who was third in the 1997 European Championships, will compete at 54 kg/119 lbs. Kulac placed second in the 1994 World Cup.

Ali Ozden, who was fourth in the 1998 European Championships, will wrestle at 85 kg/187.25 lbs.

Competing at 76 kg/167.5 lbs. is Nuri Zengen, who was the 1996 World University champion. Zengen was seventh in the 1998 European Championships.

Rounding out the 1998 Turkey Goodwill Games freestyle wrestling team are Gursel Uzunca at 63 kg/138.75 pounds, Adem Kaya at 69 kg/152 lbs. and Kasim Sakiroglu at 97 kg/213.75 lbs.

The wrestling competition at the 1998 Goodwill Games will be held July 25-26 in the historic Theater at Madison Square Garden. The rest of the Goodwill Games field will feature the United States, Russia and Turkey.

Lineups for the United States and Russia have already been announced, and Iran will be announced when available.

The 1998 Goodwill Games, scheduled for July 19-August 2 in the New York metropolitan area, will showcase approximately 1,500 of the world's best athletes from more than 60 countries, competing in 15 sports. The competitors will be vying for $5 million in prize money and world record/performance incentives, the largest purse in multi-sport event history.

TBS Superstation, the Games host network, will televise 45 hours of prime-time coverage of the 1998 Goodwill Games. CBS will televise 10 hours of weekend, afternoon coverage. In addition to appearing on TBS and CBS, boxing will be televised on HBO as part of the Boxing After Dark series.