Ethnosport Cultural Festival to kick off in Istanbul

By Emrah Oktay

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Ethnosport Cultural Festival, organized by the World Ethnosport Confederation, will be held in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on Oct. 3-6.

According to a statement from the confederation, the festival will be held for the fourth time this year with 16 nations participating, including guest country Argentina.

Nearly a thousand athletes will compete in the festival in 12 traditional sports including archery, oil wrestling, belt wrestling, mounted javelin throwing, mancala and horseback archery.

The oil wrestling festivities alone will last for four days with a total 250 contenders.

Berkin Aras, who won the gold medal in the 15th World Horseback Archery Championship in South Korea this year, will also compete in the horseback archery category during the festival.

*Writing by Muhammed Enes Calli