Yagli güres is the Turkish National sport. It is popularly called Turkish Wrestling or Oil Wrestling because the wrestlers rub themselves with olive oil. The wrestlers are called pehlivan, which means 'hero' or 'champion'. They wear trousers (kisbet or kispet) that were originally made from water buffalo leather, but nowadays calfskin is also used.
Unlike other forms of wrestling, oil wrestling matches can be won by gripping the kisbet in a certain way. The purpose of the pehlivan is to control his opponent by putting an arm through the back of the kisbet. If you win this way it is called a paça kazik.
Originally the competitions had no time limit and could sometimes last one or two days. This changed in 1975 and the maximum time for competitions in the baspehlivan category is 40 minutes and in the pehlivan category 30 minutes. If there is no winner at the end, there will be an extension of 15 minutes for the baspehlivan category and 10 minutes for the pehlivan category. During extra time, scores are kept in order to declare a winner at the end.
The annual Kirkpinar tournament has been held in Edirne since 1362. This makes it the oldest continuous sporting event in the world. In recent years, Turkish oil wrestling has been on the rise around the world and is also becoming popular in other countries, especially the Netherlands and Japan.
