Mongolian sumo wrestler appointed grand champion

A Mongolian sumo wrestler has been promoted to the game’s highest rank in a ceremony on Friday.

Hoshoryu, actual identify Sugarragchaa Byambasuren, turned the 74th yokozuna, or grand champion, after profitable a serious event final week.

To turn out to be a yokozuna, the wrestler should not solely obtain nice sporting success but additionally show good conduct and be accredited by a board of judges.

Hoshoryu’s uncle Asashoryu, a former yokozuna who was referred to as the dangerous boy of sumo, was pressured to stop the game in 2010 after breaking a person’s nostril in a drunken brawl exterior a nightclub.

However Hoshoryu has already indicated he needs to observe a special path to his uncle, whose personal ceremony came about 22 years in the past to the day.

“I need to act correctly as a yokozuna and do my greatest,” he stated.

Round 3,500 followers arrived on the Meiji Shine in Tokyo to see the 25-year-old full a lot of rituals to obtain his new title.

He was handed a white rope belt worn by yokozuna, which he placed on for his ring-entering ceremony.

Throughout this, he clapped his palms, stamped his toes and sat in a low crouch for a number of minutes as the group applauded.

“I practised loads however I used to be nonetheless extra nervous than I anticipated,” he stated.

“I believe I did it correctly although.”

Not like different ranks, a yokozuna can’t be demoted and is anticipated to retire if their stage of sumo decreases.

A number of wrestlers can maintain the rank at any given time, however Hoshoryu will stand alone on the high after the final remaining grand champion Terunofuji, 34, introduced his retirement earlier this month.

His appointment has prevented the game having no grand champion for the primary time in additional than 30 years.

Mongolians have dominated sumo for the previous 25 years.

Because the flip of the century, six of the seven wrestlers promoted to yokozuna hailed from the Asian nation.

Japan’s solely new champion throughout that interval, Kisenosato, held the rank for less than two years.

“Mongolians achieve this properly as a result of their nationwide wrestling fashion, Bokh, may be very related,” Rob Ó Néill, president of the British Sumo Federation, instructed the BBC.

In Bokh, fighters depend on leg sweeps, that are authorized in sumo however have been unusual till the wave of Mongolian fighters turned skilled.

“It was like a kickboxer combating a boxer,” Mr Ó Néill stated.

Though the Japanese fighters have improved at defending these strikes, they’re a elementary a part of the Mongolian combating philosophy in a method they don’t seem to be in Japan.

Sumo is a extremely conventional sport that takes time to regulate.

One more reason behind the success of the Mongolians is that they begin wrestling from a really younger age.

“They’re additionally completely big guys,” Mr Ó Néill added.

Not like different fight sports activities, skilled sumo doesn’t have weight classes.

To be knowledgeable, fighters should eat, sleep and prepare with each other in a sort of coaching corridor referred to as a steady.

There are presently round 40 stables formally recognised by the Japan Sumo Affiliation.

“It is their whole lifestyle from after they be part of to after they retire,” Rob stated.

Eating places serving chanko, a sort of stew eaten in huge portions by the wrestlers, are sometimes opened by former fighters close to stables.

Every is simply allowed to coach one international wrestler, and as Japan is the one nation with skilled sumo, nearly all of fighters are homegrown.

The winner of the boys’s novice Sumo World Championships, which fields rivals from virtually 90 nations, is invited to hitch a steady.