Tokitenkū Yoshiaki

Tokitenkū Yoshiaki
時天空 慶晃
Personal information
Born	Altangadasyn Khüchitbaatar (1979-09-10) September 10, 1979 Mongolia
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	142 kg (313 lb; 22.4 st)
Career
Stable	Tokitsukaze
University	Tokyo University of Agriculture
Record	548-545-56
Debut	July 2002
Highest rank	Komusubi (March 2007)
Retired	August 2016
Championships	2 (Jūryō) 1 (Sandanme) 1 (Jonidan) 1 (Jonokuchi)
Special Prizes	Technique (1)
* Up to date as of August 26, 2016.

Tokitenkū Yoshiaki (born September 10, 1979 as Altangadasyn Khüchitbaatar, Mongolian: Алтангадасын Хүчитбаатар, in Altanbulag, Töv Province, Mongolia) is a former sumo wrestler. He made his professional debut in 2002, reaching the top makuuchi division just two years later. The highest rank he reached was komusubi, which he held on three separate occasions, but never retained for more than one tournament. He earned one special prize, for Technique. He wrestled for Tokitsukaze stable. He has acquired Japanese citizenship and is now a sumo coach.

Early life and sumo background

Tokitenkū is the son of a Mongolian wrestler, who reached a rank equivalent to komusubi in Mongolian wrestling. He first came to Japan in 2000 to study at Tokyo University of Agriculture. Although he took part in sumo, winning the under 100 kg collegiate championships, he originally intended to return to Mongolia upon graduation. However, he was inspired to enter professional sumo by watching active wrestlers Asashōryū and Asasekiryū, with whom he had practised judo as a teenager in Ulaanbaatar. He joined Tokitsukaze stable just before turning 23 years of age, the upper age limit set by the Japan Sumo Association.

Career

Upon entry he was given the shikona or fighting name of Tokitenkū, a reference to Mongolia's clear sky. He began his career in July 2002, winning all of his first 22 official bouts and earning three consecutive division championships in the process. Only Jokoryu, who won his first 27 matches, and Itai and Tochiazuma, who each won 26, have had a longer unbeaten run from entry into pro sumo He progressed to the second highest jūryō division in March 2004 and, just two tournaments later, to the top makuuchi division. It took him only 12 tournaments from his professional debut to make the top division, which is equal to the second fastest rise since six tournaments a year were introduced in 1958.

Tokitenku in May 2009.

He was not able at first to maintain his makuuchi position, dropping back to jūryō twice, but a result of 10-5 in November 2005 gained him the rank of maegashira 1 as well as the technique prize. He made his san'yaku or titled rank debut in March 2007 at komusubi, where he defeated yokozuna Asashōryū on the opening day but missed out on another special prize by falling just short of a majority of wins, posting a 7-8 score. He returned to komusubi in July 2007, but again scored 7-8. In 2008 he became the first wrestler since Takanonami in 2003 to suffer six consecutive make-koshi or losing scores in the top division.

He pulled out of the January 2010 tournament on Day 10 after dislocating his toe; this was his first career withdrawal. He came back strongly posting three winning records in the next three tournaments, which sent him up to maegashira 1 for the September 2010 tournament. However, there he recorded a disastrous 2-13 score.

Tokitenkū returned to the komusubi rank for the first time in 35 tournaments in July 2013, the second longest wait for a san'yaku return after Aobajō's 47 tournament wait between 1975 and 1983. Tokitenku achieved this despite being ranked as low as maegashira 8 in May, the first time since 1988 that a wrestler had secured komusubi promotion from such a position. A series of poor performances after that saw him demoted to jūryō for the first time since 2005, but he secured an immediate return to the top division with a 10–5 at the rank of jūryō 3 in March 2014. He repeated this achievement once again when he was demoted in September 2014 and bounced back with a jūryō championship to again return to the top division. In 2015 he completed two tournaments in the top division, dropped back to jūryō in May and returned to the top division one tournament later. After losing records in July and September 2015 he withdrew from the November tournament after being diagnosed with malignant lymphoma.^[1] Having been in and out of hospital since October, he also withdrew from the January 2016 tournament to discuss his future with his stablemaster before the spring tournament in Osaka. He missed several consecutive tournaments after that and his rank on the banzuke dropped through the un-salaried ranks.^[1]

Retirement

The Japan Sumo Association announced on August 26, 2016 that Tokitenkū had retired.^[2] He had become a Japanese citizen in January 2014 and had already secured the Magaki kabu or elder stock. He will be known as Magaki Oyakata and will work as a coach at Tokitsukaze stable. Speaking about his condition he said that "with prolonged treatment it was difficult to return to physical strength and continue sumo."^[3] He recalled his most memorable bout as being his playoff win for the sandanme championship in January 2003, against his stablemate Toyonoshima.^[4]

Fighting style

When he began his sumo career he weighed around 113 kg (249 lb), but he gained weight steadily and reached about 150 kg (330 lb), average for the top division. He favoured a migi-yotsu grip on the mawashi, with his left hand outside and right hand inside his opponent's arms. His most common winning technique was yori-kiri, or force out, although he also relied on pull-down techniques such as hataki-komi and hiki-otoshi. He was fond of throwing moves (nage). He was very adept at using tripping techniques, winning 17 career bouts by uchigake (inside leg trip). He also used the extremely rare trip nimaigeri (ankle kicking twist down) on eleven occasions, althyough he was not credited with the technique in the top division until May 2011 in a win over Shōtenrō.^[5] He also appeared to employ it to defeat ōzeki Kotoōshū in March 2007, but the kimarite was given as shitatenage (underarm throw) instead.

Career record

See also

• List of sumo record holders
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of non-Japanese sumo wrestlers
• List of past sumo wrestlers

References

External links

• Tokitenkū Yoshiaki's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage
• complete biography and basho results (Japanese)