Turkey bags third place at Mediterranean Games with 31 golds in total

Turkey came third in the 18th Mediterranean Games which finished Sunday in the Spanish city of Tarragona, with 31 gold, 25 silver and 39 bronze medals.

Turkey earned at least one gold medal in almost each category in which its athletes competed, with eight gold medals earned in wrestling and six golds in weightlifting, counting both male and female athletes.

Italy ranked first with 56 gold, 55 silver and 45 bronze medals. Host country Spain ranked second with 38 gold, 40 silver and 44 bronze medals. France and Egypt took fourth and fifth places, respectively. Twenty-six countries participated in this year's games.

Some of Turkey's standout athletes included world champion sprinter Ramil Guliyev, who broke the 35-year record with 20.15 seconds to win the gold in the men's 200 meters. The record was set by Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea at the 1983 Games in Casablanca.

For men's Greco-Roman style wrestling, Metehan Başar and Yunus Emre Başar both won gold. Ahmet Bilici and Selahattin Kılıçsallayan took home the gold in men's freestyle. For women's wrestling, Evin Demirhan, Bediha Gün, Elif Jale Yeşilırmak and Buse Tosun won gold in each of their categories.

Turkish female weightlifter Şaziye Erdoğan won two gold medals.

Others who took home the gold included Kayra Sayit in judo, Ece Öztürk in bocce, paralympian Zübeyde Süpürgeci in women's 800m T54 race and Başak Eraydın-Ipek Öz in tennis doubles.

Inaugurated in Egypt in 1951, the Mediterranean Games are held every four years between countries around or close to the Mediterranean Sea.

Turkey hosted the event twice; in 1971 in western Izmir province and in 2013 in southern Mersin province.