Emre Sakçı, right, claimed the men's 50m breaststroke title before helping Turkey win the men’s 4x100m breaststroke gold ©Konya 2021

Turkey produced an almost perfect performance in the pool, winning six of the seven golds on offer on the first day of swimming competition at the Islamic Solidarity Games here.

Emre Sakçı earned two of those as he triumphed in the men’s 50 metres breaststroke final before anchoring his team to men’s 4x100m breaststroke gold at the Konya Olympic Swimming Pool.

There were also victories for Berke Saka, Viktoriya Güneş, Yiğit Aslan and Merve Tuncel.

Kazakhstan’s Adelaida Pchelintseva denied Turkey a clean sweep when she came out on top in the women’s 50m breaststroke final, dashing Güneş’ hopes of double gold.

The first evening session started with a bang for the host nation as Saka captured the men’s 200m backstroke crown in a Games-record time.

Saka finished in 2mins 01.40secs, beating the previous record of 2:01.72 set by compatriot Ege Baser.

Ziyad Ahmed of Sudan came second in 2:03.69, with Turkey’s Melikşah Düğen finishing third in 2:03.90.

Turkey then made it two from two when Güneş won the women’s 200m individual medley title.

She clocked 2:15.92 to claim victory, as compatriot Deniz Ertan came second in 2:18.24 and Indonesia’s Azzahra Permatahani finished third in 2:20.87.

Aslan also broke a Games record when he powered to glory in the men’s 400m freestyle in 3:52.98.

It was a stunning performance from Aslan who shaved off over two seconds from the previous record time set by Malaysia’s Kevin Yeap Soon Choi.

Batuhan Filz had led over the first 100m but had to settle for second in 3:56.59, while Egor Petryakov of Uzbekistan was third in 4:01.06.

There was no stopping Tuncel in the women’s 800m freestyle final as she won by a whopping five-and-a-half seconds.

Tuncel also obliterated the Games record, winning in 8:40.14 - 13 seconds faster than Khoo Cai Lin of Malaysia notched.

Compatriot Deniz Ertan was second in 8:46.44, with Indonesia's Izzy Dwifaiva Hefrisyanthi coming third in 9:22.22.

Güneş was aiming for a second gold of the night when she lined up for the women’s 50m breaststroke final.

But the Turkish star was defeated by Pchelintseva who stormed home in 31.92.

Mohammad Ganjkhanlou of Iran claimed men's road race gold in Konya ©Konya 2021
Mohammad Ganjkhanlou of Iran claimed men's road race gold in Konya ©Konya 2021

She was followed by two Turkish swimmers in Gülşen Beste Samanci and Güneş who clocked 32.45 and 32.55 respectively.

Turkey bounced back thanks to Sakçı who captured the men’s 50m breaststroke title in 27.92.

Uzbekistan’s Vladislav Mustafin sealed silver in 28.08, while Denis Petrashov of Kyrgyzstan came home in 28.31 to take bronze.

Turkey underlined their dominance in the pool by winning the men’s 4x100m freestyle gold in another Games record time.

Uzbekistan got off to a superb start as Aleksey Tarasenko touched first after the opening 100m.

Turkey sneaked ahead at the halfway point thanks to Doğa Çelik’s second leg, edging ahead of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and they did not look back after that.

They continued to stretch their lead, opening up a gap of almost three seconds from Iran with one leg remaining.

Turkey clinched victory in 3:20.60, as Uzbekistan came second in 3:22.25 and Iran bagged bronze in 3:22.46.

Elsewhere, Mohammad Ganjkhanlou of Iran and Olga Zabelinskaya of Uzbekistan won the respective men’s and women’s cycling road race titles.

At the Tuyap Fair Center, Indonesia continued their weightlifting dominance with Rizki Juniansyah winning three more golds in the men’s 73kg category.

Juniansyah won titles In the clean and jerk with 190 kilograms, snatch with 150kg to secure a combined total of 340kg.

Alexey Churkin of Kazakhstan was second with 315kg, while Saudi Arabia’s Abdulrahman Albeladi grabbed bronze with 296kg.

There was also success for Indonesia in the women’s 64kg division with Tsabitha Alfiah Ramadhani clinching the snatch title with 98kg.

Nuray Gungor of Turkey took the other golds in that category, securing the clean and jerk with 121kg and overall with 218kg.

Compatriot Berfin Altun came third overall with 202kg while Ramadhani picked up silver with 214kg.

Uzbekistan’s Mukhammadkodir Toshtemirov edged out Iran’s Mostafa Javadi Aliabadi to win men’s 81kg snatch gold.

The clean and jerk and overall titles were awarded to Aliabadi who scored 201kg and 364kg respectively.

Para archery competition continued with Iran’s Hadi Nori claiming men’s compound bow singles gold and Turkey’s Öznur Cüre clinching the women’s compound bow singles crown.

There was a Turkish one-two-three in men’s W1 open with Yiğit Caner Aydın triumphing ahead of Bahattin Hekimoğlu and Nihat Türkmenoğlu who claimed silver and bronze respectively.

Nil Mısır beat Fatma Danabaş to win top honours in an all-Turkish women’s W1 open final.