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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Sabi Hussain | TNN

Life after earthquake: Rabia Topuz puts behind personal grief to compete at women’s World boxing

NEW DELHI: Rabia Topuz still shudder with fear recalling the horror-filled February 6 early morning when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake ripped through her home country of Türkiye and northern Syria, resulting in thousands of people dying, tens of thousands injured and seeking shelter in cars, factories, mosques, shopping centres and other administrative buildings.

It was around 4 am local time when Rabia, asleep at her home in the city of Malatya, was shaken from her sleep by the deadliest earthquake ever to hit Türkiye, hearing screams all around and people rushing into the streets to find a safe place to hide.

“I was at my home in Malatya when the earthquake hit us. I was very scared and saved myself in the nick of time. I was in a state of shock as I didn’t know what to do and ran straight out as the tremors continued. When I went out, the weather was freezing cold as it was a winter time. It was snowy weather and we were all cold. We didn’t even have our shoes on our feet and it was a really difficult time,” Rabia told TOI.

The Turkish national team boxer, who is in India to compete at the IBA women’s World Boxing Championships here in the light flyweight (48-50kg) division, informed that she and her family slept in cars for 10 days before shifting in a makeshift tent after their homes got completely destroyed due to the earthquake. “I am still living in our tent with the family and hoping that we will get a house really soon. It was a very difficult time before the tournament as I could barely train for ten days. I came to the camp for the last 20 days but didn’t lose my spirit and gave my best to prepare for the tournament,” she added. As of March 13, more than 48,400 deaths have been confirmed in Türkiye according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

“It’s hard to play boxing in such situations but you have to do it for the country. The Turkish flag keeps me motivated to give my best in the ring. I will start my training again after returning to Turkey with my team. We will stay in Izmir to train for the forthcoming tournaments,” she added.

World Champions from Türkiye, Busenaz Surmeneli and Sennur Demir, have extended their helping hands to rebuild the nation and are volunteering in Kahramanmaras – one of the affected cities.

Türkiye’s team head coach, Tuncay Varol, shared his thoughts on the tragedy back home and said the boxers have been working towards realising their dreams of winning a medal at the Paris Olympics next year. “We suffered a great disaster as a country, and our pain was great as it deeply affected all of us. However, life goes on. We have the Paris Olympics ahead of us and have to keep working towards our goal. This World Championships was a tournament we had to attend and we did it by putting our pain inside ourselves. No matter how bad the situation is, we have a team that can overcome it. In this Championships, we will fight in a way befitting the Turkish Nation.”

Varol said that the earthquake took place in the southeast side of the nation and they continued to train in a region far from the tragedy. “We did our preparations for the tournament in Istanbul and Kastamonu. Unfortunately, one of our boxers Rabia was affected by the earthquake and their house was destroyed, but thankfully there was no loss of life. Their families are close and of course, we live together in sadness. She is from Malatya. They were caught in an earthquake in Malatya and their house was destroyed. Thank God they came out quickly, no loss of life.”

“Of course, we had difficulties but our boxers are all staunch and sane. They are very responsible and did their duty in the ring. An earthquake is an event that creates great trauma. A person who has not experienced an earthquake is afraid of even entering closed environments, but we are trying to overcome it together. We have psychologist friends in the camp, we get their support, we try to overcome this by making ourselves talk a lot,” the coach signed off.

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