Kocaeli

Kocaeli Province

Kocaeli Province is a province of Turkey. Its capital is İzmit, which is sometimes referred to as Kocaeli itself. The largest town in the province is now Gebze. The traffic code is 41. The province is located at the easternmost end of the Marmara Sea, especially on the Gulf of İzmit. Because of...

 in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. It was originally founded in 1937 as "İzmit Kağıtspor", a sports club of the state-owned SEKA Cellulose and Paper Works in Izmit

Izmit

İzmit is a city in Turkey, administrative center of Kocaeli Province as well as the Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality. It is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. The city center has a population of 294.875...

, Kocaeli. Club colors are blue and white. Current club president is Fahrettin Kandemir, who is also the chairman of the Turkish Ice Hockey Federation

Turkish Ice Hockey Federation

Turkish Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body of the ice hockey sport in Turkey. It was established in 1991 as the Turkish Ice Sports Federation . It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation . The TBHF is based in Ankara and its current chairman is A...

.

Already in the beginning, İzmit Kağıtspor operated also branches like rowing

Rowing (sport)

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

 and sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

 and won also many international titles in athletics, sport wrestling and boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

. Merged in 1987 into "Kocaeli Belediyespor" and renamed, the club expanded fast since then and is active in 30 sports branches with a total of 2,453 athletes as of 2007, making it one of the biggest sports clubs of Turkey. Its amateur and professional individual sports people and teams of various branches are very successful at domestic and international events as well. The total number of sports people licensed by the club competing for Turkey's national teams amounted to 155 in 2007. The 2007-2008 budget of the club is TRY

Turkish new lira

The new Turkish lira was the currency of Turkey and the de facto independent state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus between 1 January 2005 and 1 January 2009 which was a transition period for the removal of six zeroes from the currency. The new lira was subdivided into 100 new kurush...

 2.2m (about US$ 1.76m). Current club president is Fahrettin Kandemir, who is also the chairman of the Turkish Ice Hockey Federation

Turkish Ice Hockey Federation

Turkish Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body of the ice hockey sport in Turkey. It was established in 1991 as the Turkish Ice Sports Federation . It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation . The TBHF is based in Ankara and its current chairman is A...

.

Branches

Some of the 30 branches the club sponsors are:

• Athletics (men's, women's)
• Basketball
  Basketball
  Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
  
   (men's, women's)
• Boxing
  Boxing
  Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
  
  
• Fencing
  Fencing
  Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
  
  
• Figure skating
  Figure skating
  Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
  
  
• Football
• Ice hockey
  Ice hockey
  Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
  
   (mens
  Kocaeli Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kağıt S.K. Men's Ice Hockey
  Kocaeli Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kağıt Spor Kulübü is an ice hockey team in Izmit, Turkey. They play in the Turkish Ice Hockey Super League, the highest level of Turkish ice hockey...
  
  , women's)
• Judo
  Judo
  is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
  
  
• Karate
  Karate
  is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...
  
   (men's, women's)
• Skeet
  Olympic Skeet
  Skeet is a variant of skeet shooting, and the specific variant used in the Olympic Games. Two throwing machines at different heights launch a series of 25 targets in a specific order, some as singles and some as doubles, with the shooter having a fixed position between them. Men's competitions...
  
   and trap
  Olympic Trap
  Officially referred to only as trap, and also known in the United States as international trap, bunker trap, trench or international clay pigeon, the single-target Olympic trap shooting event has a history over a hundred years old...
  
  
• Taekwondo
  Taekwondo
  Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
  
  
• Volleyball
  Volleyball
  Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
  
   (men's, women's)
• Weightlifting (men's. women's)
• Wrestling

Notables

Athletics

• Hülya Baştuğ - world-class female mountain runner
  Fell running
  Fell running, also known as mountain running and hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty...
  
   (2007)
• Meryem Erdoğan
  Meryem Erdoğan
  Meryem Erdoğan is an Ethiopian-born Turkish female long-distance runner.-Personal life:...
  
   - female long-distance runner

Boxing

• Nagehan Gül - female amateur boxer
• Fatih Keleş
  Fatih Keleş
  Fatih Keleş is a European champion Turkish amateur boxer competing in the lightweight division. He is a member of the Kocaeli BB Kağıt S.K. in Izmit. He is coached by Nazım Dalkıran.-Early life:...
  
   - 2011 European champion in lightweight division

Karate

• Yıldız Aras
  Yıldız Aras
  Yıldız Aras is a Turkish female karateka competing in the kumite +60 kg and open divisions. Aras is member of the Kocaeli Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kağıt Spor Kulübü Karate team...
  
   - female karateka, multiple World and European champion
• Gülderen Çelik
  Gülderen Çelik
  Gülderen Çelik is a Turkish female karateka competing in the kumite –53 kg division. The tall athlete is member of the Sarıyer Belediyespor in Istanbul. Her trainer is Turan Yılmaz.-Personal life:...
  
   - champion female karateka
• Hüsniye Gürel - 2008 European female youth champion
• Serap Özçelik
  Serap Özçelik
  Serap Özçelik is a Turkish female karateka competing currently in the kumite -50 kg division.-Achievements:2011: European Championships - - May 6, Zurich, SUI - kumite -50 kg...
  
   - champion female karateka
• Tuba Yenen - 2008 European female youth champion
• Karate men's team - 2007 European champion

Taekwondo

• Bahri Tanrıkulu
  Bahri Tanrikulu
  Bahri Tanrıkulu is a Turkish taekwondo practitioner, who competed in the Men's 80 kg class at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece and won the silver medal....
  
   - 2009 world champion in 87 kg
• Hatice Kübra Yangın
  Hatice Kübra Yangın
  Hatice Kübra Yangın is a Turkish female taekwondo practitioner competing in the bantamweight division. She is a member of the Kocaeli BB Kağıt S.K. in Izmit....
  
   - 2011 world female bronze medalist in 53 kg

Weightlifting

• Sibel Şimşek
  Sibel Şimşek
  Sibel Şimşek is a European champion Turkish female weightlifter competing in the Women's 63 kg division. She is tall and weighs .Sibel Şimşek is a member of the Kocaeli Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kağıt Spor Kulübü...
  
   - 2010 European women's weightlifting champion
• Gülnaz Yanık - 2007 European female junior champion

Other sports

• Tuğba Karademir
  Tugba Karademir
  Tuğba Karademir , is a Turkish former figure skater. She was the flag-bearer for Turkey at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where she placed 21st.- Career :...
  
   - first ever Turkish Olympic female figure skater (2006)
• Arzu Özyiğit - female basketbaler
• Ice hockey men's team - 2007 Turkish Ice Hockey Super League
  Turkish Ice Hockey Super League
  The Turkish Ice Hockey Super League is the highest level of ice hockey in Turkey. It is operated under the jurisdiction of the Turkish Ice Hockey Federation, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Unlike the National Hockey League, the Super League is not divided into conferences;...
  
  champion