Emre, who is 17 years old, aims to become the world arm wrestling champion

17-year-old national athlete Yakup Emre Budak, who won second place in the European Arm Wrestling Championship in 2024, is preparing to win the gold medal at the world championship to be held in Moldova.

Young national athlete Yakup Emre Budak continues his preparations for the World Arm Wrestling Championship to be held in August in the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, under the coaching of Dursun Önder. The successful athlete, who has been devoted to arm wrestling for 5 years, won the Turkish Championship in 2021. Budak, who did not achieve a ranking in the world championship he participated in 2021, did not give up and became the European second place in the 90 kg left arm category in 2024.

Budak expressed that he has come to these days thanks to his coach Dursun Önder, saying, ‘God willing, we expect a ranking, a gold medal at the World Championship to be held in Moldova.’

Explaining that he became interested in this sport while arm wrestling with his friends, Budak said:

‘In the village where I live, we were constantly playing games with my friends, arm wrestling. I started to beat my friends in arm wrestling. My sister is also a national athlete in karate. She has been encouraging me to do sports in Youth Sports Directorates since I was 10 years old. Because my education was a bit problematic. After that, I tried boxing, swimming, darts, archery sports but I was not really into them. I told my sister that I wanted to do arm wrestling. She said, ‘Is arm wrestling a sport?’ Times have changed and now I am an arm wrestler.’

Budak said that he has an injury on his right arm and therefore continues his training without overloading this arm.

Coach Dursun Önder, stating that he expects a ranking from his athlete, said, ‘He became the European 2nd this year. We now have the world championship ahead of us. If nothing goes wrong there, I think he will play in the final.’