First time when i saw Esra Kiraz she was only 16, her competetion spirit looked like a mini & female version of my young career.

She has won some medals in Europe & World in junior competetions and she finally won the Europeans in 2011 as a senior puller against the powerful Russian Tatiana Istomina after tough hook wars.

After that time she had been winning medals but not any other titles. She has very tough opponents such as Babaeva from Slovakia, Volkova from Russia and Verina from Kazakstan. But usually Volkova from Russia was her toughest opponent as they meet both at EAC and WAF while Verina competes only WAF and Babayeva had been away since 2013 WAF.

Esra had some wins against Volkova but somehow she end up not winning the class. Because of Volkova's tall forearm Esra had difficult time to hook her. But once she was able to hook her then she was the one who is stronger. With time Volkova became a main target for Esra and she started to prepare herself esspecially for her.

Esra is a well rounded puller as she can hook toproll and side hit. Volkova's tall forearm and strong hand usually unabled Esra's outside and side movements. Esra had hook as her only option but Volkova to drop her front wrist also gave hard time to Esra about hooking movement.

This year at the Europeans Esra had also Babayeva as her one of the toughest opponents after 1,5 year of absence. We did not know how good she was going to be but she did not seem at her best shape. So Esra and Volkova were the main pullers for the gold medal. With left arm Esra was able to beat Volkova once but and again she ended up silver medalist by losing in the final match. The next day Esra was determined to not lose anymore.

She was in the final undefeated and we all were not sure about the outcome as many times she lost the gold in such way. But this time she did not give any chance to her opponent and flashed her to grab her European title.

Esra has some fighting spirit that is hard to find in female armwrestling. I believe that she should be invited to professional fights as well because of the competetion spirit and power that she has.

Right now in Istanbul the training place that Arif Ertem (current EAC no 3 in +110kg category) has the best armwrestling club in Turkey. Esra has been training in this club with many other future stars. The competetion level in this club is producing many young talents and they are becoming a threat both in the nation and in the international area.

I believe that being part of this club will make Esra becoming the very best constantly in her category.

Engin Terzi