Gold Medalist Sureyya Ayhan Runs For Her Kind

Target of public criticisms of her personal life prior to the Munich games last week, "my answer is my success," says a proud Ayhan. "I ran not only against my rivals but also against rumors, slanders, lies and gossips at home. I am happy that I beat them all."

Outgunning celebrated World and Olympics champion Gabriela Szabo, Süreyya Ayhan gained the 1500 m finals with 3 minutes 58.79 seconds brought Turkey the first medal after Ruhi Sarialp's bronze in the triple jump, in 1950.

Turks celebrate the 23-year- old sports student Ayhan's victory in the women's 1500 m. finals in Munich 2000 contest, as another stride in Turkey's rise to prominence in world sports, however Turkish women applaud Süreyya Ayhan also for her courageous stand against gender discrimination.

"In Turkish sports women's branches are ignored. Football dominates the scene. Sureyya's victory is therefore extraordinary. This is the victory of her own will," says women's rights activist Filiz Koçali from Istanbul.

"Further, Ayhan stood firmly against public charges for her private life," Koçali told Bianet "She was under pressure for her love affair with her coach. Yet she did not sacrifice. She resisted and gained," she told.

"I am assured that most women in the country have sighed with relief when she crossed the finish line on Sunday."

Sureyya Ayhan is one of Turkey's 1, 632 licensed track and field women athletes, in a country with 35 million women population. A rare example of her kind Ayhan ran to victory with the sponsorship of the southeast city of Gaziantep mayoralty as the Turkish Athletism Federation could spend little on her with its modest budget of 600 thousand dollars.

"Mine is not a personal victory. We worked hard with my coach who is my love, my teacher, my father and my everything," Sureyya challenges the criticisms of her love affair with coach Yucel Kop, a former cross-country skier.

Ayhan's affair with Kop, a married man with children, had gained such unproportional media coverage last year that it had become the subject of parliamentary debate when an Islamist deputy Zeki Çelik directed questions to State Minister Fikret Unlu.

"How could the Minister keep a coach, who exploits his trainee, on duty?" the deputy asked. The Ministry's response was to start investigation against the coach and the athlete. The two saved their career, promising that they will marry.

The conservatist pressure on Ayhan aroused the anger of women's rights activists. One of them writer Vivet Kanetti dedicated her book to Sureyya titling a collection of articles on women "Run Sureyya Run".

Kop and Ayhan are yet to marry, as Kop's wife refuses divorce, but the voice of the critics is now hardly heard as Ayhan have gained the hearts of all Turks with her courageous run as well as her courageous stand against charges.

"I want to be the idol of the Turkish youth," says Ayhan. "Now I am champion athelete, and I can act as a role model."

Indeed Ayhan's own example might increase women's interest in athleticism yet women's sports in Turkey might require more stimulus then her own example as still very little percantage of young Turkish women regularly deal with sports.

According to official figures Turkey's sports branches have a total 65.948-licensed women athletes of whom 3,584 compete in handball, 7 thousand in aikido, 6,350 in swimming, 4, 697 in basketball, 15,180 in volleyball as the most popular branches.

"Sureyya is an outstanding example, but still a rare one," says women's rights activist Filiz Koçali. "We can not expect all ordinary women to become champion athletes to defend their preferences in private life. She was lucky somehow"

A gifted athlete herself Sureyya has also been lucky to as she is the daughter of a former amateur athlete. Her father a local cross-country champion of her hometown Cankiri had been both a role model and supporter for young Sureyya when she started athletism in the junior high school.

Ayhan already holds Turkish records in 800 m and1500 m . he has ran in semi-finals in the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic games. (EK/NM)