Episode 2 Natural Born Winners

What does it take to be the best?

Around the world,

sports steeped in tradition create their champions.

Men who master speed...

..skill, endurance

and the will to win.

Four modern sporting heroes are about to put themselves to the test.

Argh!

Gareth Thomas, Welsh rugby legend.

You don't want to lose. Nobody wants to lose. It hurts.

Donovan Bailey, the Olympic gold medal sprinter.

Every single day I get up and I have a goal.

James Toseland, two-times World Superbike Champion.

There's always a will to win. I hate losing. I've always hated losing.

But I'm not planning on losing.

And Iwan Thomas, whose British 400m record has never been broken.

I've always been a competitor.

I think I always will have that natural need to win.

They will travel to the four corners of the Earth...

Wow, look at that.

..to take on some of the world's great challenges.

Wow!

It's super dangerous. God, it's like being on death row.

They're about to find out who's got what it takes...

This is combat.

..to triumph against the odds.

They'll compete to be the best.

I love it. I didn't realise how much I missed it.

But who will crumble?

Argh!

I'm not in. You're not in? I'm not in, no.

Argh, argh.

I just want to die.

And who's got what it takes to win?

That is the scariest thing I've ever done.

Our athletes face four gruelling tests.

Their first sporting challenge was a 21-mile marathon with a twist.

Everybody's finally ready for this.

They were racing against horses in the mountains of Wales.

As soon as any competition starts,

I will want to beat that person I'm facing.

JT! JT!

That was it, game face on, race face on,

get to the front, I'm in the race.

Superbike hero James Toseland was first home,

over the finish line in an impressive three-and-a-half hours.

Fighting injury,

sprinter Iwan came second.

I slipped at mile 11 and right onto my hamstring.

Coming in third... I literally felt like I was going to die.

..nearly broke rugby legend Gareth Thomas.

And Donovan Bailey... Ooh, the hamstrings!

..once the fastest man in the world,

became the slowest man in the race's history.

Well done.

You done it, brother.

You've done it, butt.

Now, the four men are heading east

to put their brute strength and skill to the test.

They are about to do battle

in one of the oldest combat sports on Earth.

Oil wrestling.

This ancient sport is Turkey's national obsession

and over a thousand years old.

Wrestlers go head-to-head in a series of knockout bouts.

The fighter who forces their opponent

to show their stomach to the sky for just a split second wins.

Towns across Turkey hold their own wrestling tournaments

and huge crowds come to cheer their heroes.

In just three weeks, the athletes will go up against

professional wrestlers and find out who can put up the best fight.

Gareth, Iwan and James have arrived in Turkey to begin their training.

At the airport to meet them, straight from Canada,

is the team's fourth member,

former Olympic 100m champion Donovan Bailey.

Come on. Hello. What's happening?

Hello. The Don is in here!

How you doing, boss? What's up, dog? I'm good, man. How are you?

Oh, man, I was reading some things.

'This entire exercise is a million miles outside of my comfort zone

'so it's definitely a huge test for myself

'to see how far I can take it.'

There's certain things you only get in combat sports.

It's like two objects just meeting

and you could have the same strength, the same skill,

the same ability, but one person wants it more than the other.

The boys are heading two hours north of Istanbul to Edirne,

the spiritual home of wrestling.

They are about to train with one of Turkey's great wrestlers,

Ahmet Yavus.

He's a master of the sport

with dozens of tournament victories to his name.

And he's agreed to help the boys master the basics.

It's like a fashion show.

We're, like, being pimped out.

We're like Russian brides.

LAUGHTER

Oh, my God. Awkward!

Ahmet's first challenge is a test of strength.

Arm wrestling?

Oh, my God. This is going to last, like, two seconds.

What the hell?

He's smiling. He's smiling!

Of course he's smiling. He was smiling!

Go on!

He's like a gorilla.

Can I wrestle you instead? They found him in the Congo.

Ready?

You've got him.

Gareth, you've got him! Yeah, look at him!

Look at his face compared to mine!

He knows. He knows, mate. You had him.

Come on, dude.

JT's strong, I'm telling you. Power to weight ratio.

No, he's struggling.

You've got him, JT. You've got him.

Never underestimate the JT.

CHEERING

I think someone's had a word with him.

Let one of them win. Let one of them win!

I felt quite bad. We were all having a laugh

and I think we do need to remember that this is his national sport.

There was a point where I just thought,

actually, it's time to take this...

serious.

'Now Wales can attack once again on the break.'

Gareth spent his whole career playing at the heart

of the Wales team.

And when he was awarded the captaincy, it meant everything.

When you are made captain,

you don't want to seem like you're better than them.

But, ultimately, there's times

where you have to be the best in the team because everybody will look to

you for inspiration, everybody will look to you for leadership.

'..the Welsh try scoring record!'

It can be...

it can be lonely.

But the times where you feel the comfort of the team's support

far outweighs the time you feel the loneliness.

'What a beginning.

'Gareth Thomas!'

It was a shock to us when he was made captain.

But the people who gave him that responsibility made him.

They could see something in him and totally changed him.

'Gareth Thomas. A dramatic try for Wales!'

Mentally hard, I call him. Mentally hard, yeah.

It's time for Gareth and the boys

to get their first taste of wrestling.

Iwan. Nice to meet you, man.

I'm good. Hi, pleased to meet you.

But before the start, they'll need one crucial ingredient.

Whoa, easy tiger!

It is literally cooking oil.

That would cost you a lot of money in Tesco.

Oh, OK.

Kispet are the sport's traditional uniform.

The highly decorated shorts

can only be worn by experienced wrestlers like Ahmet...

..who wants to show the boys that his sport is all about contact.

What I don't like is the fact you get slapped.

They've got big sausage plate hands. Yeah, like a heavyweight.

Bang, bang. He'll knock you out.

I mean, you're getting hit in the temple all the time

and that has to disorientate you. It has to.

I tell you, there's going to be some blood.

The reaction... Head clashes.

They're allowed to forearm to your face.

Hey!

Are you all right, big man?

Ahmet uses his bulk and power to win his battles,

but two of the younger wrestlers

use their speed to overwhelm their opponents.

The thing is, no-one wants to give up, do they?

The Yannick brothers are the bright young hopes for Ahmet's team.

They started wrestling when they were just ten years old.

He's bleeding. His head's bleeding. And they're brothers.

Now, they're training professionally.

These two, I wouldn't want to go against them.

They're like pure pedigree bloomin' race dogs. Look at them.

That's how I used to look when I was 20.

Whoa, easy!

That's BLEEP.

BLEEP.

He just mullered him.

This time it's the older brother, Shaffaq, who wins the match.

I think I'd rather go fell running again. Bring me that horse.

Ahmet's demonstration has given the boys plenty to think about.

It's way more intricate than I actually thought. Me too. I agree.

We're watching this and you see the difference between

the big guys, which is all about technique,

and then the little guys, it's technique and speed together.

When we do this for real, there's no way they are going to say,

"Let's go nice on them."

I know what I would do, this is our national sport,

let's show them how tough we are.

They will go in hard on us. Not today for training.

We've seen it for the first time

and we have probably seen two pretty intense matches.

We're watching them and thinking,

"Oh, my God, this looks really hard to do."

But every day we will have more of an understanding of it.

'Seeing these guys and seeing how they fight,

'seeing how much they care about it,

'it reminds me of what I felt in rugby.'

But I also realise that in rugby,

sometimes some people are better than you,

whether they are bigger, faster, slower, whatever.

Sometimes they're better than you.

So all the talk of Man v Horse was all about,

"I'm going to finish, I'm going to finish."

All of a sudden, we've found something that, actually,

may not be as scary as the Man v Horse

but because it's contact, we are BLEEP ourselves.

I don't think our bodies will be ready.

There's no way my neck is ready to have 92kg land on it in the next two weeks.

'We have two ex-athletes from the same sport.

'Doing the fell running, it was actually their comfort zone

'because it was running.'

Now this is something that's completely alien to what they can do

and I think they've become...

to me, they were, like, afraid.

The next morning, Gareth and James head into Edirne

for essential supplies.

Amazing cobbled streets, aren't they?

At the hotel, Iwan and Donovan are still reeling

after yesterday's demo.

When he was slapping his opponent,

you could actually get knocked out with that.

That's actually...you're getting slapped hard enough

to cause a concussion. Does that worry you?

I was a little bit, like, there's not much health and safety.

That open hand hitting the back of the head, the temple,

I'm looking at that thinking, I could get knocked out.

I'm worried about that.

There has been oil wrestling in Edirne

since it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire almost 700 years ago.

The city's wrestling teams are some of the best in Turkey

and Ahmet is one of over 20 champion fighters.

We'll need at least two, butt.

Go on, then, get me that one. Hello.

Thank you, buddy.

Armed with the oil, it's time for the boys to get started.

The right to wear the wrestlers' leather kispit has to be earned

so Ahmet's got a beginners' cloth version for his four new students.

I tell you what, they look strange, don't they?

Breathe in, Don.

It's just squished up and shoved in.

No, this is not good.

It's a little tight. It's a little tight.

Look at the colour of it!

Oh, man. I smell like a chip!

The whole oil ritual is a bit freaky for me.

Covering yourself in olive oil is not something you do every day.

It's the smell more than anything.

It really does smell like you're in a fish and chip shop

and I don't like being clammy and sticky

and I've got a thing with my hands,

so this is a challenge in itself, getting all this oil on.

'Oh, no way, James Toseland!'

It's a far cry from a helmet and leathers

for the former Superbike World Champion.

My mum met a new boyfriend who had a motorcycle

and then this new boyfriend bought me one for Christmas.

'The crowd go wild as Toseland takes the lead again and takes command.'

Going back to school and everybody saying,

"What did you get for Christmas?" "I got a motorbike."

All of a sudden, they saw past the glasses, the braces,

the spots and my leather satchel with music in it

and thought I was quite cool from then on.

'Surely we are looking at the new World Champion from Great Britain.'

From that personality to then getting on a motorbike

and just wanting to go faster with no fear at all,

I'm still not quite sure where that came from.

Kitted out and oiled up,

the boys are finally ready to get to grips with the basics.

There's another crucial hold they'll have to master.

Oh, hand down his pants.

The hand down the kispit.

Sorry, mate, I've only just met you.

I haven't even taken him out for dinner yet.

'I'm not used to being that close to a guy and, like,

'this is a weird sensation.'

It feels quite nice, if I'm honest, all the oil, but it's a bit weird.

I almost want to apologise, "sorry, mate, my hand's in your shorts",

but it's part of the game, it's part of the rules.

'It's wrestling and someone's in my space.

'And I don't like someone in my space'

and that alone is uncomfortable.

And then there's oil and that's really uncomfortable.

Fans and friends around the globe will be shocked that

I'm doing any of this, absolutely any of this, for one second.

The craziest thing is, for me, it's probably one of the manliest,

toughest sports that I've probably ever encountered,

yet Donovan, he has this manliness barrier

being this close to another man in a wrestling situation

and I think that to gain the respect of the guys within here,

in this sport, and the people who he's competing against,

he has to be willing to step outside of his lane.

Donovan Bailey broke the world record

when he won Olympic 100m gold.

Winning the Olympic Games allowed me to join the greatest

and probably most extensive clubs in the world,

where you are the number one man

and you are the number one man for ever.

For me, it's the biggest alpha male sport event on the planet.

The 100m is the simplest sport

and it only requires you really to put one foot

in front of the other efficiently.

But you have to do it so technically sound.

The biggest misunderstanding of that is that everyone can do it.

But there's only one person that can actually do it the best.

OK, right. So...

After only an hour's training,

Ahmet wants to give the boys their first taste of a fight...

I can't even get his shorts.

..against each other.

It's the first time they've competed head-to-head

and, like a real tournament, it will be winner stays on.

All of a sudden, we're going to have winners and losers within the group

and that's going to change the dynamic.

So you don't finish in a time and you don't get success by finishing,

you win or you lose.

Fair play, man. You got me.

Butt, are you all right? Yeah, I'm good. You got me.

Donovan and Iwan lose their fights and are out.

Losing means Iwan's out of the action but he wants more training.

I'm not happy about this.

Surely we need to learn more if we've...you know.

'I don't actually see the common sense between the two people'

who are deemed the worst, or haven't won, being sent off.

In my eyes, surely I should be out there learning more,

going through the motions.

Not hurting each other, learning the grips, learning the twists,

learning the pulls, because we need it.

Oh, wow. Ah, OK.

'I want to be out there.'

It's like not being invited to your mate's birthday party.

You can hear the disco from down the street.

Just try.

That's what upset me more than anything, in my eyes,

in any sport, if you're not deemed the best at it,

which I'm not, you beat me, the only way I'll improve is to do it.

And then it felt like you and JT got more time and me had Donovan

had nothing, just sat in an empty shower, that horrible room.

And I'm, like, I want to be out there. I want to be learning.

That's the world we've come to.

We've step outside of our own worlds and we've come to another culture,

another world, and we can respect that.

But the one thing you keep saying that I don't think

was relevant today was, like, I think the word win or lose,

because today was all about learning.

For me, it just reflected my career a bit. It really annoyed me.

Once again, I want to be good at something and it's gone.

'Thomas is holding on through sheer strength.'

I used to be able to really push myself to the extent I would be sick

at training - I could go through the pain barrier and beyond.

I believe that's why I achieved what I did as a 400m runner.

I always feel like I have to prove myself

and, perhaps wrongly so, I feel I have to prove myself to others.

I like to try and be the best that I can be at everything I do

and perhaps I need to let that go a little bit,

perhaps I need to stop fighting.

You know what, like, in a group, we're all different,

but, ultimately, when we have tasks and we're all together,

we're together.

Yeah, man, come here. Mate, trust me.

In just three weeks,

the boys will be competing in their first wrestling tournament.

But after only a day's training,

they're taking a Turkish massage in a hammam to recover.

I don't use muscles like that.

Grabbing hold of someone and trying to turn them and twist them.

He may have won last week

but James is worried that this sport plays against his natural talents.

When it comes down to strength, they're all over six foot two,

all three of them, and I'm like a jockey compared to them.

But Gareth already looks the part.

I look imposing and when I was a professional rugby player,

it was exactly how I wanted to be.

Because if I stood there, six foot three and maybe 12st

and looking tough, it meant that psychologically,

you know, I could fight...

on a rugby field with the best of them.

Oh, that's lush!

In a few weeks, the boys will be fighting in a real tournament

so Ahmet wants to be sure they've grasped the basics.

Oh, man!

And after his heart to heart with Gareth,

Iwan's changed his whole approach.

Today, this is really good because we're going through a bit slower,

rather than going...like, yesterday I just wanted to do more and more

but I can see now that it's good to slow down and look at the technique.

Donovan's struggling with the physical contact.

And after two hours of training, his fitness is giving him issues too.

After being with these guys for a few days

and seeing what they do,

I have a completely new respect for how aerobic these guys are.

It's the guy that makes the first mistake

and his opponent recognising that tiny window of opportunity

to pin him or put him on his back.

These guys clearly have spent a lifetime perfecting their craft.

Donovan was as dedicated when he was young.

I was motivated by sport just because I think that was

the greatest way to get me out of the house and maybe not to study.

I just wanted to do more. I had a bit more energy than the others.

I liked the idea of getting my homework done as soon as possible to go outside and play.

I don't ever remember not competing and participating in sport.

Do you know what, I feel knackered...

but I love it because...

I didn't realise how much I missed it.

It's, like, all personal.

It's all you against him

and who's willing to give up

and who's not.

'God.

'God, what a sense of satisfaction.'

Even though I couldn't go any more, at least I know I couldn't,

and I went to a point where hopefully he will respect it.

The place I come from, the hard-working environment,

the place where people are willing to make sacrifices,

for me gave me an understanding that nothing comes for free

and everything you get you work extremely hard for.

I remember certain occasions where my dad said,

"I can't go out this week because we had to buy Gareth new boots."

They didn't know I was going to play for Wales

but they wanted to give me the best opportunity they could

so by my father and my mother making sacrifices to make sure

that I can go on the field and play local rugby on a Sunday afternoon

is an understanding of what sacrifice is.

The boys have completed the first phase of their training.

To celebrate their initiation into the sport,

Ahmet is going to prepare them a traditional wrestler's meal.

Ahmet, who has made it to the national wrestling finals,

is something of a local hero.

And Ahmet's keen to make sure there's enough meat

to feed up his budding wrestlers.

Ah! Shoes, guys, shoes.

Hello. Oh, shoes. I'm Iwan. Aisha. Aisha.

All right, butt?

Fantastic. Look at the size...

Is this your father? Your father? Big man! Was this your dad?

Oh, your grandfather. I thought father.

They're not just trophies, they've got medals and everything.

During his career, Ahmet has won hundreds of matches

throughout Turkey and, in three weeks, he will be competing

in the same tournament as the boys in the town of Kocaeli.

Ladies first. Thank you. Oh, look at that.

It looks fantastic. It's lamb and lamb, isn't it?

Ahmet, is meat a big part of your training?

'I have a rule that I don't eat anything that I would consider

'to keep as a pet because I love animals.'

I do eat meat because I don't think I'd survive if I couldn't eat meat,

but lamb is always, kind of,

one of them animals that you see running around a field.

You crack me up. You're so polite.

I couldn't eat it on its own because just the taste of it is disgusting

so I had to get as much in my mouth as I could

and then, without chewing it, just fill my mouth up with orange juice

and then swallowing it whole

because the thought of having to eat it outright.

Done?

After the meat feast, Ahmet has an announcement to make.

Oh! Please be the leather trousers.

When they return to Turkey,

the boys will be joining Ahmet in the tournament

wearing the traditional uniform of Turkish oil wrestlers.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Ahmet believes the boys are nearly ready to fight

seasoned professionals in the regional competition in Kocaeli.

These kispits are such a big part of it,

because if we rock up looking the part, then we need to perform

because the people are going to look at us and think, this guy can do it.

So it turned everything a lot more serious.

The four sportsmen are on their way to Kocaeli,

four hours south of Edirne.

Wow, look at that. Some high walls.

I've only just been able to turn my head to the left.

Yeah, I mean, I'm still aching.

'Everybody is a lot more nervous going in this time

'because we have an understanding of what is to come.

'I think combat sport is something, when you get into it,

'it becomes something of self pride and I think everybody's self pride.'

Are you feeling good now? I'm OK. We'll see how it goes.

I think when it begins it'll be interesting to see how far

they're willing to go.

Here's the boys, before we get broken(!) Waay!

As they arrive in Kocaeli,

the boys head straight to the training ground.

# Till then, baby are you gonna let them hold you down and make you cry

# Don't you know, don't you know things can change

# Things'll go your way if you hold on for one more day

# Things'll go you way hold on for one more day

# Hold on for one more day. #

I don't want to ruin this day, but, excuse me...

Four big men, semi-naked.

Things were going so well.

Look at the size of him! They look more brutal than the last ones.

Holiday's over.

As Ahmet completes his preparations in Edirne...

..he's got his friend Mustafa, one of Turkey's great trainers,

to get the boys ready.

He wants to give the boys the skills they'll need

to compete in the tournament that will take place in this arena.

Hello. James. Gareth.

They've got the kisbits, but if they're to look

the part as wrestlers, they'll have to learn the ancient rituals too.

What are we doing here?

First they join hands with their opponents...

..and then they start the pesrev,

a stylised march that symbolises the hero's quest.

What if your opponent, before five minutes, takes you to ground?

It's an aggressive new tactic for the boys.

Mustafa chooses Iwan to demonstrate.

I like his bad breath!

You're going to get pummelled, Iwan.

He's like the Incredible Hulk.

Do you know what, obviously he's not going full pelt at all with me,

but I learned quite a bit from him, then.

He was quite generous with it, but just so heavy.

You can see how out of breath I am just trying to move him.

I like it. It feels so much better in these trousers.

It's just obviously not only learning the technique,

but the strength and the weight of the guy to get him over's hard,

but I think my advantage would be my speed.

That's what I've got to try and use, but, oh, it's tough.

Mustafa's boot camp is bringing out the competitive

side in Iwan, Gareth and James,

but it's left Donovan struggling.

This is all aerobics, man. It's all aerobics.

I'm tired. It's like a marathon, really.

I'm just not in shape for that. I'm built for sprinting.

I want to get in there, ten seconds, I'm done, finished, finito.

It's definitely an aerobic exercise where you have to be patient

and it's not what I do.

The problem with Donovan is I don't think he's too bothered.

I think he's conquered his world,

the double 100 metre champion.

That's what he set out to do

and if he's not good at anything else he's not bothered.

He's still king of his own castle.

Training's over.

In two days' time, they'll be competing for real.

Are we ready individually to be chucked into a competition?

You want to feel that you can do it mentally,

but from a technical perspective, you can't.

I would need months of this training to be honest with you,

so I don't think come Sunday we'll be as ready as we could be, no way.

I'm ready enough. Yeah, you two, I think are ready enough.

We need to practise a bit more tomorrow.

No, no, only ready enough...

I've got an understanding of what to do my best on not allowing them

to get me on my back, but I have no idea really of getting them.

I'm thinking quick and fast and because I want to get them

on their back as quickly as possible,

I just have a couple of moves I actually want to try, that's it.

Do you reckon you'll get a chance to put the moves on them?

I don't know if I'm going to do that but if there's a tiny window.

Today there was two tiny windows. I went at it and I end up on my back.

My concern with you, D, is if we go in there and you come up against

some BLEEP brute, is that a, "Do you know what...

"we could get BLEEP?"

No, but I've said that to you.

I will assess this day by day.

Tomorrow I get out there, give it a shot, but it's more

I get out there and give it a shot and that's a no-go for me.

I'll tell you it's a no-go.

The next morning

and the boys are heading for one last training session.

They'll be wrestling professionals in 24 hours and the danger of what's

to come has got them comparing notes on sporting injuries.

So what's yours? Probably the biggest injury was my right femur.

I crashed it, Cadwell, in 2000, Cadwell Park,

and when I was on my side, my leg was up here.

It spiral fractured and it was underneath. I was laid on it.

What are you thinking when you're lying here

and you're laying on your leg, which shouldn't be there?

It's like, how the hell did that get there?!

Something's happened. I used to do yoga.

Just as I thought it couldn't get any worse,

the air ambulance was quite narrow and, cos of the angle of my leg,

they had to get it straight.

So they rebroke it? It was shattered and they just had to straighten it.

Oh, man! Oh, my God!

That's painful listening to it.

Tomorrow the boys will do battle before a crowd of 2,000 people.

They're determined to put up a fight even if they lack experience.

So much to learn. So much to learn.

I wonder how many moves there are?

Wow!

Mustafa's focusing on Donovan in a last attempt to get him ready.

But he still needs to master the most basic requirement -

a killer instinct.

OK.

OK. Give into it, Bud.

Er, OK.

Use your long reach.

Get him, Don. That's it.

Now change hands. Stay on top of him, D. Huh?

Stay on top of him.

'It's about commitment and, you know what,

'none of us are going to be experts at it

'but we can give one thing we have

'and that's a lot of passion towards it

'so the way of winning respect of these people is by giving them

'everything you've got regardless of winning or losing.'

No, no, no, it's the other side.

APPLAUSE

It's too much for the 100-metre gold medallist.

I'm always worried about injuries.

I mean, I think that's the number one thing, is that, you know,

Gareth has basically been in a combat sport all his life

and JT is just good at everything.

Iwan is giving it a shot.

I mean, we know three, four moves out of 500 moves.

It doesn't suffice for me to get in there and try to do battle.

I don't know enough to participate in an actual war as Mustafa said.

I think tomorrow it is going to be a case of survival.

There's some cheeky little moves he was showing us at the end.

You clench your fist to hurt a calf or trigger point the neck there.

You missed that.

When he was headlocking to say you can choke them out,

the aim is not only to wear him out, but knock him out.

Oh, cheers for that!

Are we in or are we out? I'm in.

I'm in but just get some oxygen ready cos

if I get choked out I'm going to need three of you to help me.

I'm not in. You're not in? I'm not in, no. I'm not in.

I'm not in because... You don't need to give a reason.

No, no, I'm not giving a reason

because I think I need to give an excuse.

I think that it would probably be disrespectful to believe that

if I learn two moves I can actually get in there and do something.

'I think that, if he does pull out, then it's not a negative

'because it does frighten him,

'what could potentially happen to him tomorrow.'

You have to decide, are you doing it for yourself or are you...

I'm doing it cos I feel that the journey is not complete

unless I take part in the competition.

Wonderful. I think that's awesome.

It's the day of the tournament. Training is over for the sportsmen.

In just a few hours,

there'll be a winner in this second heat of this competitive series.

It's a weird one, this, cos out of all the sports and the

challenges we're doing, this is the one I fear for all of our safety.

It's brutal.

The only thing I think I have in my locker, which we all have,

is hopefully I've still got a competitive switch.

I'm going to need all of that switch turned to ten.

He may face long odds, but James is coming out fighting.

I'm pretty excited about it.

I think I've got a couple of manoeuvres.

If I've got someone I can lift up, then I might have a chance.

I think I'm the most competitive, for sure.

If I'm going to go in, I don't just want to just be an annoyance to

one of the professional wrestlers.

I want to give them a proper challenge

and see if I can win maybe.

But even the favourite's nerves are beginning to show.

Potentially, muscle-wise and training-wise,

I'm bigger than the other guys.

I'm no less frightened than the other guys

and that's the reality of it, because, again,

the unknown is really scary for anyone

and if you pretend that you're not afraid of the unknown then

you're lying and I'm not a liar, so I'm afraid as anybody and I'm going

to be in positions where I just have no idea what's going to happen next.

MARCHING BAND DRUMS

Kocaeli's wrestling tournament is considered one of Turkey's best.

It draws wrestlers and spectators from across the country every year.

The day starts with a gathering in the city centre.

It's a chance for the boys to see what they're up against.

Did you see the size of that man?

He's like Jaws out of blummin' James Bond!

THAT scares me!

Before a tournament, wrestling tradition requires competitors

pay their respects at the grave of town's greatest wrestler.

Hergeleci Ibrahim became Turkish champion in 1914.

He fought matches around the world and was renowned for knowing

more wrestling moves than any other fighter.

A century later, he's still a legend of the sport.

In professional eras,

so many professional athletes forget about roots

because it becomes about something else,

but I think what's great about this sport,

like all great sports as far as I'm concerned,

is that you participate in it

because you understand the roots of the sport and that's what this is.

It's time to find out who has best mastered

the techniques of Turkish wrestling.

We've arrived, boys.

Oh, my God, can we just not do another lap round the block?

Looks a bit different to training. Look at that! It's packed!

Whoa!

400 wrestlers from across the country have come to Kocaeli

to fight for a place in the national finals...

..and the chance to be crowned champion wrestler of all Turkey.

A series of knockout bouts will be fought simultaneously,

some lasting up to 40 minutes.

The winner will be decided after a long day of fighting.

Even the spectators look big.

LAUGHTER

Akmir, their first teacher, has arrived.

Like the boys, he doesn't know who he'll be fighting

till he's called for each match.

It's different nerves. When I used to race and hear, "On your marks"

you're nervous, you know the 400m hurts, but you train for it.

You're training all year.

Racing's easy. Training's hard.

This is a different fear because, not only will I physically be

tired and challenged, mentally, just the fear that I may get hurt.

Listen, this is real. This is combat.

Knock 'em dead, fellas.

I'm excited to try it.

It's a lot pressure because everybody's just looking at us

and thinking, "Wow, what are these guys going to try and do?"

So it's pressure but I'm genuinely, genuinely not nervous.

I'm excited to try it.

Finally, their opponents step forward for the pesrev,

the heroes' walk.

Mustafa has matched three experienced wrestlers

with the sportsmen.

They've got one chance to compete with their new skills.

Gareth is the first to fight.

Go on, G!

The first thing I remember was being hit on the back of the neck

harder than I've ever been hit before,

and I thought, "Oh, my God, I'm in a real fight!"

And I had no idea of what to do.

I was just trying my hardest to keep it going as long as I could

and he wasn't holding back a single inch.

Use your power.

Come on, Gareth, that's it, that's it. Counterattack.

Gareth is forced to show his stomach to the sky

but he held off for an impressive three minutes and 56 seconds.

I wanted to enjoy the time I did it, feel the crowd a bit, feel the buzz

like you used to years and years ago

when you competed at that high level in front of people

and just kind of savour the moment, really.

I enjoyed what I did.

With Gareth making a strong start,

can Iwan use his speed to his advantage?

WHISTLE

'I didn't see the start so much cos I was congratulating Gareth.'

By the time I turned round Iwan was on his arse.

Iwan is on his back after just 15 seconds.

I went off too quick.

I just feel I need to apologise

because I know I could have done better.

It's weird cos half of me thinks I want to have another go at it

and maybe the other three-quarters thinks, you got out alive,

nothing's broken, go home and have a cup of tea.

James is fired up and he's got Gareth's time to beat.

Go on, JT. Speed.

Go on, James.

Halfway through the match I thought I felt his strength.

I thought, OK, I'm at least a match strength-wise, I thought.

James dug in hard but he's been flipped.

I've not done anything like really competitive for a while

and I've just found out, after four years of retiring,

that I still really hate losing.

His fight lasted three minutes and 49 seconds.

That's seven seconds less than Gareth

so the rugby international's first with James second and Iwan third

and Gareth's enjoying a new-found respect for his fellow wrestlers.

We know the sport. We know the people doing it.

We know how much they care about it, so all of a sudden now it's like

watching our friends compete in something that's

the definition of who they are and that's massive,

cos rugby is the definition of who I am,

so we know what this means to these people.

APPLAUSE

For a slight second I thought, "Oh, man, I'd like to get out there."

But one of the things about the decision I made is simply

I'm 100% in, I'm 100% out, so I don't really have any regrets

and they know that they have my support is satisfactory for me.

The boys have fought.

Now it's time for Ahmet, the master, to show them how it's done.

Look at him.

After a straightforward win for the champion, Ahmet's got some

words of encouragement for his latest students.

I feel like we've experienced something that

we actually gained loads out of because we feel like we've competed

the best we possibly could in the short time we had.

To us, this is a nice ending where we've come, the three of us, we've

tried a sport that we respect and now we know just how tough it is.

It's time for the boys to say their goodbyes to Mustafa...

Thank you. Hey.

..and to Ahmet.

The four sportsmen are off to their next challenge,

with James and Gareth neck and neck with one win each.

But, as well as winning and losing,

their experiences are bringing them together as a team.

The whole process of trying to come to grips with this sport

has also brought us, as a group of people, as four ex-athletes,

much closer together.

Whatever the next sport is we need to remember what gelled us together

because, otherwise, we'll fall apart and I don't want that to happen.

# Come on now, go

# Walk out the door

# Just turn around now cos you're not welcome anymore

# Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye

# Did you think I'd crumble?

# Did you think I'd lay down and die?

# I will survive. #

Next time...

This is definitely not Bridgend anymore.

..the four sportsmen travel to India...

Can I have three teas, buddy? Oh, you speak the lingo!

..to become disciples in the ancient martial art of Kalari.

It's super dangerous.

They'll train with hardened masters who take no prisoners.

He hit me once on the knee

and then once on the inside leg.

James and Gareth might have one win each,

but these quick combat moves...

I'm loving this. You've got to learn it or you'll get hit.

..could be a perfect match for the sprinters, Iwan and Donovan.

This is excellent.

For me, the idea of speed and accuracy is what this is all about.

When it comes to competition day, everything's to play for...

Gareth looks like he's going to take someone's bloody head off.

If I hit with the aggression I have been, I could do a bit of damage.

..when the men find out they're fighting each other.

We do BBC School Report every year.

My students get really into it.

Even at lunch, you see them running around, doing interviews

and making news reports.

They're really engaging with the world around them.