“Our first Battle of the Nations was in Barcelona in 2017. Each and every moment of it is highly memorable for me due to the sheer love and stress we all went through”- that`s how Burak Yarar, the captain of the National team of Turkey started his story about the first Battle of the Nations participation.
That year he was a fighter and took part in the buhurts. He still remember a lot of details of that BotN starting with preparations for the trip and to the end of the event. There were hundreds of memorable moments that were really touching and exciting. HMBIA News editorial office want to tell you some of that recalls.

“That day was really exciting, we were waiting in line for the opening ceremony, being among so many armored fighters, historical outfits, flags, and then walking out into the arena and saluting everybody. Those are the moments one could never forget”.

After the opening ceremony the buhurts started. It was the first ever buhurt event for the Turkish team and the first round of their first match was a big eye opener. Burak recalls that his first fall was from a tackle which he didn’t see it come.

“I was suddenly flying and absolutely had no idea why or how. We were so desperate and clueless that it was a lot of fun and a lot of brainstorming between the fights which i’m sure  none of us will ever forget for the rest of our lives. The result was as expected of course, that we lost every round, but the experience was so much more than we had anticipated. Being involved in the real thing was a lot more exciting and scary than watching it on the internet, it was addictive. I still remember that after each fall, the person lying next to me would be our ex-captain Ateş, I would recognise him by the shaking of his feet from pain and we still remember and laugh about it pretty hard”, recalls Burak Yarar. 

But still Turkish fighters were able to enjoy HMB fights. According to Burak, being there and fighting was very relaxing compared to the rest of the process. They just fought and did not have any other worries whatsoever.

There was a special and very personal moment that Burak still keeps in his heart. That was the victory over yourself, adrenaline rush and stress relief, but at the same time the moment of peace:

“My one personal big memory I will always cherish is from right after the fights in the evening at the camp area. It was a cloudy night and surviving the fights along with being done with all the stress that came with preparations of BotN, I had to vent out my emotional stress and went for a swim at night, and I am always highly scared of the sea at night. That night though the sea was especially aggressive, so very suitable for venting compressed feelings. So I went there and saw my brother Dobri, well known ex-captain of Serbia. Apparently he was already there enjoying the sea alone, so I joined him and the two of us had a bit of a bromance moment there fighting the ice cold waves under the rain while everybody else were in the camp area in their coats, warming their hands on fire”, told us Burak.

Three years passed since that Botn in Barcelona, there were a lot of fights, victories and trainings, a lot of work on self development in the HMB sport has been done. Burak Yarar was chosen as the National team captain. There were a lot of great memories of other BotN Championships collected, but that first one in priceless!

HMBIA News appreciated Burak Yarar for such a touching and atmospheric stories that he shared with us. We hope to see him and his courageous team on the lists of the HMB world Championship Battle of the Nations 2021

HMBIA News