}
Dilek Koçak (born 15 August 2005) is a Turkish
middle-distance running
Middle-distance running events are Track and field#Running, track races longer than Sprint (running), sprints, ranging from 500 metres up to . The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres m ...
athlete, who competes over distances
800 m and
1500 m. She is the European U20 champion in 1500 m.
Sport career
Koçak was discovered as a
track athlete by the physical education teacher and athletics coach Cahit Demir, while she was grazing animals at her village Ãœzengili intown,
karayazı, Erzurum, eastern Turkey, a location situated at above mean sea level.
Demir convinced her father to take her for training at Karayazı town, where he was working.
At the age of sixteen, she transferred to
Fenerbahçe Athletics in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
.
On 15 May 2022 in
Mersin
Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...
, she broke the 15-year-old Turkish women's U18 record in the 800 m event with a time of 2:06.95. Two weeks later, on 29 May in
Bursa
Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...
, she renewed her own record with 2:04.35.
Koçak participated at the
2022 World Athletics U20 Championships in
Cali
Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...
, Colombia. She competed in the semifinal of the
80 m event, and in the final of the
1500 m event. She set a new Turkish U18 record in the 1500 m with her time of 4:14.90, which is more than five seconds better than the previous record.
At the
2023 European Athletics U20 Championships in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, Israel, she won the bronze medal in the
800 m event, and became European U20 champion in the
1500 m event.
Personal life
Dilek Koçak was born in
Ãœzengili village of
Karayazı district in
Erzurum
Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...
on 15 August 2005.
After she started in athletics, she was schooled in the Erzurum Sport High School, recommended by her coach Demir.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kocak, Dilek
2005 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Erzurum
Turkish female middle-distance runners
Fenerbahçe athletes
21st-century Turkish sportswomen