WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish motorcycle rider Kenan Sofuoğlu who finished second in the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday, which was enough for him to win the 2012 Supersport World Championship, has said that he is the first rider to win the championship three times.

Speaking at a press conference in İstanbul after arriving in Turkey on Tuesday, Sofuoğlu told reporters that he was very happy to bring the championship to his country.

“This is my third championship. There is no one else that has been crowned champion three times in the Supersport World Championship. There are two that won the top spot twice. So I hold the record for now,” he noted.

“I can't say it was the most difficult season I have ever had. The most difficult one was in 2010. But I have had far more problems this year than in previous years. I had to undergo three operations. The injury I had on my knee was giving me a hard time during my trainings,” he said.

Talking about his goals in the future, Sofuoğlu said that he is going to race in the Supersport World Championship one more year, and that he has other plans for the following years.

Saying that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called him following his victory, Sofuoğlu said the prime minister congratulated him and asked about his health condition. “It was an honor that our prime minister is so interested in sports. He even knows about the young athletes that are being trained,” he noted.

Although Sofuoğlu came in second in the Portuguese Grand Prix, it was enough for him to be crowned the 2012 champion with a race still to go.

Sofuoğlu claimed his third Supersport World Championship by finishing behind French rider Jules Cluzel.

Sofuoğlu previously won the World Supersport Championship title in 2007 and 2010, which is unprecedented for a rider from Turkey, a country that had never seen internationally acclaimed riders before the Sofuoğlu family entered the scene.