The question now is obvious, can she win Turkeys first ever Olympic athletics gold medal?
There is still a big question mark over whether the reports were substantiated but it was enough unsettle Abeylegesse. She bounced back with dignity to finish eighth in the 1,500m, after three tough rounds, which in itself was the best ever performance by a Turkish female athlete but it was still not enough to stop the criticism in some of the more hysterical parts of the Turkish media at her failure to bring home a medal. Her critics were not even initially mollified by Esref Apak getting the men’s hammer bronze, Turkey’s first Olympic medal in athletics for 56 years, as he only received it a week after the event following a doping disqualification. However, gradually, she regained her confidence and her appetite for major championships, winning the 2006 European Cup 10,000m – a title she has retained on the two subsequent occasions – before finishing third over 5,000m in Gothenburg later that year. Her silver medal in Osaka last summer brought a change of tune from the country’s medi
