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| | '''Sami Cetin''' was born in London, UK in October 1982 to Finnish and Turkish parents, and is the Founder and Director of the [http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/ Super Mario Kart (SMK) Time Trial World Records Site for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System SNES]. He was the chief times and news updater of the SMK community since November 1998, and continues this job on the 2006 automated reincarnation of the site as a Global Director. His dedication and long-service to [[Super Mario Kart]] have earned him the title 'Godfather of SMK'. Sami is a two time PAL Time Trial World Champion of Super Mario Kart (also holding the title of the longest reigning PAL Time Trial World Champion by cumulative number of days) and is currently 2nd in the World following his rival Guillaume Leviach of France. Sami first held the Time Trial title from September 1998 to April 2004 (at one point holding all 40 WRs) and has also maintained the title as the UK National Champion on SMK for all of the modes from 1998 to present. He is most famous for his achievements on Mario Circuit 1 (the first race track in the entire Mario Kart franchise), by being the first to reach a Non-NBT 1'00"99 in August 2000. This led to an eventual Guinness World Records entry in 2012 with a 58.34 seconds World Record time. On Christmas Day 2013 he became the first person on Earth to break the PAL 58 second barrier with a 57.90 seconds World Record and broke a similar barrier in November 2014 by going sub 56 seconds on NTSC with 55.97 seconds. Sami won the overall Multiplayer Title one time at the Super Mario Kart World Championships 2012 held in Thil, near Reims, France during 21st - 26th August 2012. He was also the overall PAL and NTSC Super Mario Kart Online Multiplayer World Champion from 2011 - 2014 on the [http://www.snesot.com/ SNESOT Rankings] based on a combined overall points system (not individual years). Sami is a senior moderator of the SMK forum and a popular member of the [[mariokart64.com|kart community]]. | | '''Sami Cetin''' was born in London, UK in October 1982 to Finnish and Turkish parents, and is the Founder and Director of the [http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/ Super Mario Kart (SMK) Time Trial World Records Site for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System SNES]. He was the chief times and news updater of the SMK community since November 1998, and continues this job on the 2006 automated reincarnation of the site as a Global Director. His dedication and long-service to [[Super Mario Kart]] have earned him the title 'Godfather of SMK'. Sami is a two time PAL Time Trial World Champion of Super Mario Kart (also holding the title of the longest reigning PAL Time Trial World Champion by cumulative number of days) and is currently 2nd in the World following his rival Guillaume Leviach of France. Sami first held the Time Trial title from September 1998 to April 2004 (at one point holding all 40 WRs) and has also maintained the title as the UK National Champion on SMK for all of the modes from 1998 to present. He is most famous for his achievements on Mario Circuit 1 (the first race track in the entire Mario Kart franchise), by being the first to reach a Non-NBT 1'00"99 in August 2000. This led to an eventual Guinness World Records entry in 2012 with a 58.34 seconds World Record time. On Christmas Day 2013 he became the first person on Earth to break the PAL 58 second barrier with a 57.90 seconds World Record and broke a similar barrier in November 2014 by going sub 56 seconds on NTSC with 55.97 seconds. Sami won the overall Multiplayer Title one time at the Super Mario Kart World Championships 2012 held in Thil, near Reims, France during 21st - 26th August 2012. He was also the overall PAL and NTSC Super Mario Kart Online Multiplayer World Champion from 2011 - 2014 on the [http://www.snesot.com/ SNESOT Rankings] based on a combined overall points system (not individual years). Sami is a senior moderator of the SMK forum and a popular member of the [[mariokart64.com|kart community]]. |
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| − | Sami has a BSc in Computing and Business Administration at the University of Kent between 2002-2005 and has been working full time since. His hobbies include recreational weight training/bodybuilding in the gym, video games and movies, designing and updating the SMK site, growing Sunflowers in the garden, travelling and socialising with friends.
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| − | == Personal History and Education ==
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| − | Sami Cetin first attended Downsview Primary School in South London in September 1987. He developed an interest in Mathematics, Computers and Designing activities that would forge the skills he would use in the future. He and several others during the later years of Primary School took an interest gaming as consoles became popular. Due to suffering from asthma since 1984, Sami was unable to perform heavily in sports; this prevented him from participating in football and related activities from a young age. However, as a turn of events, Sami did participate in athletics on some occasions and he even scored 1st in his year and school for the Long Jump event in 1994. He went on to compete at the Croydon athletics vs competitors from other schools but due to lack of time and training he was unable to reach the desired results. He wouldn't participate in any other sporting / physical activity until the end of his teen years.
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| − | Secondary school began at Stanley Technical High School in September 1994 where Sami developed his education in many subjects. On his first day there he met friends that he has stayed in contact with until this day, including Jonathan "Biff" Sifleet, John Barber and Neil Skipper. Sami's subjects at school leaned more towards languages, Business and Computing which he would later go on to study at College and eventually University. He had developed a strong interest in civil aviation and wished to become a civil aviation pilot, however this dream was later not fulfilled due to various constraints, so he instead pursued other subjects of study. Sami also attended a Turkish Language School on Saturdays to complete a GCSE course from late 1997 up until Summer 1999 in which he achieved a grade A. He also performed well in all of his other exams at the end of Secondary School and set his sights for his next step.
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| − | Sami Cetin attended Coulsdon College to study A-Levels that he performed well in and enjoyed at GCSE; these were Computing, Business Studies and German. Although he had lost contact with his school friends for these few years he met many more people between 2000-2001 and had memorable moments during his A-Level studies. From late 2001 Sami ventured out to bars with a few friends and bumped into his old friends Jonathan "Biff" Sifleet and John Barber from school and since then has stayed in touch with them regularly. Sami thought it was time to develop a new hobby and began training in the gym with weights and also to improve his cardiovascular (by inventing his own training methods such as running after buses, his asthma while still present was slightly better than during his childhood).
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| − | After passing his A-Levels Sami was able to attend the University of Kent at Canterbury to study his degree course in Computing and Business Administration where he moved away from home for 3 years (returning to visit friends and family during holiday periods or a few weekends). The course began in September 2002 and lasted until June 2005 with his final exams finishing a month early. Sami continued his gym training by taking it more seriously involving a strict diet that lasted the 3 years of his University time. He made several friends during these years and involved some of them into his gym training programmes that he wrote himself. By the 2nd year he had a training group of 5 people. Sami spent time socialising and working on his Uni projects in the computer rooms and the library. He enjoyed evenings out in the main Uni bar and in town on a weekly basis. These were some of the happiest days of his life that will always be remembered. Sami graduated in 2005 after sucessfully completing a 102 page dissertation and the final exams. He shortly after found full time employment in the City of London. Sami did visit Canterbury a few times the following year to see friends only, but since then everyone he knew there has moved on.
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| | Another game which Sami had some moderate success in was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo-Pilot Banjo-Pilot] on the Game Boy Advance. He is currently the 2nd fastest player in the UK on Time Trials following Ben Bayntun. | | Another game which Sami had some moderate success in was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo-Pilot Banjo-Pilot] on the Game Boy Advance. He is currently the 2nd fastest player in the UK on Time Trials following Ben Bayntun. |
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| − | [[Image:LiandSami.jpg|400px|thumb|Li Anderson and Sami Cetin together on Valentines Day 2016]]
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| − | == Personal Life ==
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| − | Sami likes to keep himself healthy and has never smoked in his life nor does he drink any alcohol. He has suffered from moderate asthma since childhood but keeping active with a training programme at the gym has helped to ease this a lot. In his spare time he enjoys video games, movies, cooking, travelling to new countries, doing creative things, civil-aviation, reading, and growing Sunflowers in the garden.
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| − | On New Year's eve 2014, Sami met his beautiful girlfriend Li Anderson and they fell in love in 2015. Sami and Li share many interests and hobbies including video games of the Final Fantasy series, and both love doing creative things together such as designing and baking cakes. They would love to explore more creative activities for their future together.
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