Ōsunaarashi Kintarō

大砂嵐 金崇郎
Ōsuna-arashi Kintarō

Ōsuna-arashi after winning makushita division in May 2013
Personal information
Born Abdelrahman Alaa Eldin Mohamed Ahmed Shalan
(1992-02-10) February 10, 1992
Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt
Height 1.89 m (6 ft 2 1⁄2 in)
Weight 158 kg (348 lb)
Career
Stable Ōtake
Current rank see below
Debut January, 2012
Highest rank Maegashira 1 (November, 2015)
Championships 1 (Jonokuchi)
1 (Makushita)
1 (Jūryō)
Gold Stars 3
Harumafuji (2)
Kakuryū
* Up to date as of Nov 26, 2016.

Ōsuna-arashi (大砂嵐金崇郎) (born February 10, 1992 as Abdelrahman Shalan) is a sumo wrestler from Egypt. He is the first pro sumo wrestler from the African continent. Ōsunaarashi, whose chosen ring name translates into English as "great sandstorm", rose quickly through the unsalaried ranks, gaining the interest of Japanese media and popularity among sumo fans. Ōsunaarashi was promoted to the top tier makuuchi division for the November 2013 tournament. He emerged victorious from his first two matches against yokozuna ranked wrestlers in July 2014.[1] He is the most senior ranked wrestler in his stable.

Early life and sumo background

Shalan was born in the Dakahlia Governorate, near Cairo, Egypt. He was raised in the suburbs of Giza and as a youth showed an interest in bodybuilding.[2] Through an acquaintance, he became involved in amateur sumo at the age of sixteen. In 2008, he won the silver medal in the sumo championships in Estonia, and the following year won the gold medal in an amateur championships in Bulgaria. In 2010 in earned a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships in Estonia.[2] He entered university as an accounting major, but still felt drawn by his love for sumo. He decided to come to Japan in August 2011. He tried out at a number of sumo stables, and was eventually accepted by Ōtake stable. He accompanied the stable to tournaments and exhibitions as an observer while learning Japanese and procuring his visa.

Career

Ōsunaarashi in May 2013

Ōsunaarashi was allowed to participate in maezumō in the January 2012 tournament, and he debuted as a professional sumo wrestler in the following May tournament in Ōsaka at the rank of jonokuchi 5. He took the championship in this tournament with a perfect record of 7-0. He missed his first day of the next tournament in July 2012 due to a phlegmon inflammation, but was able to recover and return to the tournament to win all but one of his remaining bouts. From the September tournament onward he was very successful, never posting more than two losses in a tournament. In the May 2013 tournament he was promoted to a career best rank of makushita 7 and with a 7-0 perfect record took his second championship procuring his promotion to the salaried ranks of jūryō for the July tournament. Many sumo wrestlers struggle after reaching this professional ranks, but two consecutive 10-5 tournament records in this division earned him promotion to the highest ranked makuuchi division for the November 2013 tournament.

At the rank of maegashira 15 he came just short of a winning tournament at 7-8 in his top division debut. He managed to avoid demotion to jūryō for the following January 2014 tournament and achieved a strong 9-6 record. He sat out one match due to injury in the following March tournament, but still managed a winning record overall. Following a solid 10-5 performance in May, he was promoted to maegashira 3 for the July tournament. On the fifth day of the Nagoya tournament, in his first ever match against a yokozuna, he picked up a kinboshi for defeating Kakuryū.[3] He then beat yokozuna Harumafuji on the very next day.[4]

Ōsunaarashi reached his highest rank to date of maegashira 1 at the November 2015 tournament, and earned his third kinboshi with another upset of Harumafuji on Day 2. However, was hospitalized after the tournament, and pulled out of the following tournament in January 2016.[5] Ōsunaarashi was relegated to jūryō for the March tournament and dominated the division, taking the championship with a 13-2 record to secure an immediate return to makuuchi. After suffering a recurrence of a knee injury, he withdrew shortly before the start of the July 2016 tournament in Nagoya.[6] He was again relegated to jūryō for the September tournament and withdrew with a groin injury on the sixth day, although he returned on Day 9 and completed the tournament finishing with six wins.

Fighting style

Ōsuna-arashi's profile at the Japan Sumo Association lists his favoured techniques as tsuki/oshi, or thrusting and pushing. His two most common winning kimarite in his brief career to date are yori kiri (force out) and tsuki dashi (thrust out). He is known for the power of his right arm in particular.[2]

Ring name

Ōsuna-arashi's ring name, beyond the obvious sandstorm reference, is also taken from his surname Shalan, as the second and third characters, can also be pronounced 砂 ("sha," meaning "sand") and 嵐 ("ran," meaning "storm"), respectively. The first kanji of 大 (pronounced "ō" or "dai," meaning "big") comes from the ring name of his stablemaster, the former Dairyū. His second name of Kintarō was chosen for two reasons; because his stablemaster thought he should have a very Japanese-sounding name to offset the fact he was a foreigner and as a reference to the character from folklore, Kintarō, who was said to have been so strong as to wrestle bears and beat them.[7]

Personal life

He is a practicing Muslim. This, among other things, means he must observe Ramadan and fast during this period. It has been reported that he finds this especially challenging as wrestlers are expected to eat heartily and train hard everyday, especially in their younger years, to build up bulk. When tournaments coincide with Ramadan, he has admitted this makes his tournament appearances at this time more challenging as he has to train and wrestle on an empty stomach.[1]

In June 2016 he became a tourism ambassador for his native country, to encourage Japanese people to visit Egypt despite political upheaval.[8]

Career record

Ōsuna-arashi Kintarō[9]
Year in sumo January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo		 March
Haru basho, Osaka		 May
Natsu basho, Tokyo		 July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya		 September
Aki basho, Tokyo		 November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2012 (Maezumo) West Jonokuchi #5
7–0
Champion
 		 West Jonidan #8
5–1–1
 		 East Sandanme #75
6–1
 		 East Sandanme #20
6–1
 
2013 East Makushita #38
5–2
 		 East Makushita #23
6–1
 		 East Makushita #7
7–0
Champion
 		 West Jūryō #9
10–5
 		 East Jūryō #4
10–5
 		 West Maegashira #15
7–8
 
2014 East Maegashira #16
9–6
 		 East Maegashira #11
8–6–1
 		 East Maegashira #10
10–5
 		 West Maegashira #3
7–8
★★		 West Maegashira #4
7–8
 		 West Maegashira #5
4–6–5
 
2015 East Maegashira #13
8–7
 		 East Maegashira #11
11–4
 		 West Maegashira #3
4–4–7
 		 West Maegashira #8
11–4
 		 East Maegashira #2
8–7
 		 West Maegashira #1
5–9–1
★
2016 East Maegashira #5
Sat out due to injury
0–0–15		 East Jūryō #1
13–2
Champion
 		 West Maegashira #7
9–6
 		 East Maegashira #3
0–1–14
 		 West Jūryō #1
6–8–1
 		 West Jūryō #6
9–4–2
 
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions

Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi(s); P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi

Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hato, Kenichi (23 July 2014). "Muslim sumo wrestler Osunaarashi struggles with Ramadan as well as rivals". Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Osumi, Magdalana (7 Jan 2015). "Egyptian sumo star Osunaarashi focuses on wrestling his way to the top". Japan Times. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "Osunaarashi upsets Kakuryu". Japan Times. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "Egyptian wrestler Osunaarashi takes down another yokozuna". Japan Times. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Buckton, Mark (December 29, 2015). "After Hakuho exceeded all expectations, can Mitakeumi or Homarenishiki become the next superstar?". Japan Times. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Kisenosato triumphs on opening day at Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament". Japan Times. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  7. ↑ "A kesho-mawashi for Ōsuna-arashi from the land of Kintarō's birth". Asahi Shimbun. 5 February 2014. Archived from the original on |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help). Retrieved 9 Nov 2015.
  8. ↑ "Sumo wrestler Osunaarashi becomes tourism ambassador for Egypt". Japan Times. 3 June 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  9. ↑ "Osunaarashi Kintaro Rikishi Information". Sumo Reference. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
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