Takerufujia young 24-year-old wrestler, entered sumo history after winning a major tournament on Sunday just a year and a half after beginning to dedicate himself to this Japanese discipline, in the fastest rise of this sport, breaking a record of more than 110 years.
This 1.84m and 143kg colossus won the Emperor’s Cup at the end of the spring tournament held in Osaka, defeating in the final Gonoyamaanother rising sumo star.
Takerufuji’s victory is even more surprising because of the way it happened, since after injuring his ankle the day before, the fighter had to return to the locker room in a wheelchair and undergo medical examinations at a hospital.
“At that moment I abandoned any hope of winning the tournament“, commented this Monday in a press conference the wrestler, who trains alongside the great champion ‘yokozuna’ (highest rank received by sumo wrestlers). Terunofujiwho was absent from the tournament due to an injury.
But “the yokozuna came and told me: ‘You are capable of doing it. It’s not the record that counts, but the memory. It’s okay if you lose, but you won’t get a chance like that again,” Takerufuji explained.
Since his first steps in September 2022 on a ‘dohyo’, the clay ring where the fights take place, Mikiya Ishioka (the fighter’s real name) has gone through the five lower divisions at a dizzying speed, with only 10 defeats in 79 fights.
His title in only 10 tournaments made him the fastest fighter to lift a cup and the first to do so as a debutant in the top category since 1914.
The triumph of the young man from Aomori (north of Japan) was so fast that according to the country’s press He is the first fighter to win a major tournament without even having long enough hair to make an ‘oicho’.the typical hairstyle of sumo practitioners.
A celebrity: Takerufuji broke a 110-year-old record. Photo: AFP
This news is welcome in the sumo world, regularly shaken by scandals. The exyokozuna Hakuho He was sanctioned last month for acts of violence committed by one of his disciples, also excluded from this sport.
In July last year, another former sumotori reported having suffered mistreatment for eight years.
2024-03-26 13:00:46
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