The leading Turkish tugboat builder and operator says it is delighted and proud to be backing Türkiye’s top rowers as they stretch every sinew to represent their country at the next Olympic Games due to take place in Paris in 2024.

In 2022 TRF took part in 11 International Races, 42 A finals - the race that decides the medallists – and a total of 15 championships, including 3 European Championships and the Balkan Championship.

Dr Kerim Kazgan, CFO of Sanmar Shipyards, said: “It has been a good year for the Turkish Rowing Federation and we at Sanmar are delighted to be part of the team. It is a team that has already achieved so much and has the potential to achieve so much more. The determination shown by these young men and women athletes and the amount of sheer hard work they put in to achieve their dream is inspirational.”

Founded in 1957, the TRF has achieved new heights during recent years, with Türkiye qualifying for the Olympics in both 2016 and 2021. 

This success has come as the result of a strong and supportive structure established to spot, develop and nurture young people who show a talent for the sport. The TRF’s best coaches visit schools across Türkiye where they enthuse children and young adults about the sport and direct potential national rowers of the future to their closest rowing clubs.

The initial sponsorship deal with the TRF covering 2022 was the first long-term sponsorship arrangement that Sanmar, which builds powerful technologically-advanced tugs and other specialist workboats at its two (soon to be three) state-of-the-art purpose-built shipyards and operates its own fleet of tugs at ports around Türkiye, has entered into.