Cordoba/Boca del Rio, Mexico, July 21, 2017- Zehra Gunes is a name that stands out of the list of players from Turkey that qualified to the semifinals at the FIVB Women’s U20 World Championship to take place on Saturday at the City of Cordoba, Mexico.
Middle blocker, Zehra Gunes has been a key weapon for her team with her impressive leadership, effective attacks and outstanding presence during each of her performance.
“I got involved in sports at a very young age in school, but with my height, I was immediately selected to play volleyball” she says with a sweet smile.
Zehra Gunes began to play volleyball six years ago as part of Besiktas Club in Istanbul and has been part of their line-up at the Turkish volleyball league “I have really gotten better with every season, being a middle blocker has given me the necessary skills to be out on the bench observing my opponents’ move before getting back and supporting my teammates on each point” she says.
She just turned eighteen a few days ago and was called to be part of Turkey’s National program five years ago, on this matter she comments “I was also part of the U18 Turkish team that competed at the 2015 world championship, where we advanced to the semifinals, unfortunately we finished in fourth place”.
Volleyball has become a life style at her home with her four younger sisters already enrolled in her club back home “my sisters are really tall also, the youngest is ten years old and they are all working hard to also be part of Turkey’s national team. They all look up to me; I really hope that in the future we can make a nice portrait of us with our name “Gunes” on our national team’s uniforms, it would really emotional”.
Zehra has just been transferred to Vakitbank and she says to be excited “I am really looking forward to this new episode, being part of this prestigious club comes with a great responsibility and I want to work on improving my concentration”.
Turkey has already secured their spot in the final four, but Zehra added that she wants more for her team “I am glad to have reached our first goal here at Cordoba; we had a good second round. Now my teammates and I want to perform at our fullest to be in the gold medal match. My main goal is to win a major championship for Turkey”.