I had been wondering if i would ever be at the top of the podium again, last time that happenned was 9 years ago in 2006 Manchester Worlds and the last time i won a medal at the Worlds was in 2011 Kazakhstan Worlds.
The injuries and aging were being big problems for me to train good enough. Also my metabolism to slow down has been a big problem to lose weight. After 2015 Europeans i decided to train full motions which had been hurting me so much for years. I said to myself that even if very light i will do full motions. I started with a few kg's and every training added 1-2 kg more and with time i was able to curl up to 50kg barbell with no cheating. This helped my biceps to become stronger as i had been training with very short range of motion and both my elbows and biceps became very weak with time. Also i am not able to do table training often because of the injuries and usually i was doing one table training 3 weeks before the events and i was finding myself hurt at the events.
This time i did not really care about my endurance and cared about the elbow health. I only did 2 table time between Europeans and the Worlds. And the last time i did table time was 46 days before the left hand senior competetion. I found out that being healthier is more important than the table time in my conditions. In the competetion it looked like I, Mazhgan and Zair from Kazakhstan and the current WAF and European Champion Serhat Arslan were the candidates for the medals. My first match was against the Malaysian who did not come to the table. Second round i beat the Ukranian Riabtsev, third round i beat Serhat Arslan and fourth round i beat Mazghan.
For the final i met and beat Hristo from Bulgaria. During all these Mazhgan beat Zair, Zair beat Serhat and then Zair beat Mazhgan for the qualification to the semi final. In the semi final match Zair beat Hristo to meet me for the final match. I knew that Zair was gonna be a problem as he has strong hand and wrist with long forearm. He is smart and fast as well. I have told my friends that i am not going to lose before i either tear a tendon or break my arm as i was very close to my 10. World Title after 9 years. We went to the strap and i got a foul in the first start of the strap match. His hand and wrist was powerful so i had to go with supinated side move to catch his pronator. He still had the pronator control as my wrist was not fully curled in. He controlled my pronator and was able to hit strong.
I was trying to stop him and at the same time i was hitting back to bring my lower wrist over his pronator. Everytime he hit i was able to stop him higher and finally brought him to middle of the table with my power. But then i realised that my arm was tired and i was finishing. His arm was not moving to the side way as elbow lock was very strong. I thought pulling against his bicep was my only option and i dragged him with my lat and bicep while controlling his pronator with bottom side of my wrist.
While i was dragging him i knew that it was a Russian roulette game for me but i did not have any other option. I realised that his bicep angle became wider and elbow lock was loosen. Then i held him there to tire him but it did not seem to be a solution. He was focused on his bicep so much that he forgot about any pressure to side way and i just did a quick move to the pin pad while in drag hook position. His hand wrist came to the pin pad level and i won my 10. world title. I am so happy about my new World Title because it just showed that i am still alive at the World level even in 2015 which is 21 years after i won my first WAF title.
Now physically i am destroyed all over on my back, lat, shoulder, elbow and stomach (muscle tear) but i am not complaining about it. Not sure about if i want to continue armwrestling but i decided to not to force myself for anything anymore. So time will show about my future in armwrestling to either end or continue.
Engin Terzi