Big surprise in sumo. The sport has a new champion — and he’s Japanese
TOKYO AP Japan has a new sumo grand champion or yokozuna and the big news is he s Japanese Onosato the new grand champion weighs kilograms pounds and he is the first Japanese competitor to reach the top rank since By comparison the average weight of an NFL lineman is about kilos or just over pounds The sport has in the past few days been dominated by Mongolians and prior to Onosato six of the previous seven yokozunas have been from Mongolia I ll devote myself to training so that I will not disgrace the title of yokozuna Onosato stated Wednesday dressed in a formal kimono and bowing as he sat on the floor I will aim to become a one-and-only yokozuna Onosato whose real name is Daiki Nakamura is only and was promoted Wednesday to sumo s top rank by the Japan Sumo Association Onosato was promoted by winning last week s Summer Grand Sumo Tournament which came after he won another prestigious tournament in March Onosato is from Ishikawa prefecture which was hit on Jan by a devastating earthquake that killed about people in the prefecture and caused widespread damage He reported he hoped his success would bring satisfaction to people in the area who are still recovering I determined that yokozuna should be my goal once I entered the world of sumo he noted It s not easy to achieve and I m really delighted Sumo is regarded as Japan s national sport or majority of sacred sport and a great number of of the ritual elements are connected to Shinto Japan s indigenous religion Sumo s origins date back more than years and Japan is the only country where it is contested on a professional level The sport is highly regimented with multiple wrestlers living in communal training facilities where food and dress are controlled by ancient traditions Onosato s promotion will set up an instant rivalry with Mongolia-born Hoshoryu who is the other wrestler in Japan to hold the yokozuna title The Japanese news agency Kyodo noted the two sumo stars are due to meet in a tournament in July in the central city of Nagoya AP sports https apnews com sports Source
