New recruit from Kazakhstan

[Kintamayama 47,138]

A new foreign deshi, a first from Kazakhstan, has been recruited. Amateur sumo rikishi Gudihayen Swentz (クディハイェン・スウェンシ) will enter Nishikido beya, and will undergo his shin deshi kensa (new recruit examination) in Kyushu. Lately, we have had many foreign rikishi joining Sumo. So far, we have had 148 foreign rikishi from 19 countries, aiming to make it Big In Japan and become heroes in their various countries.

Swentz's enthusiasm is what won Nishikido Oyakata (former Mitoizumi)over. "I want to become Yokozuna and be a hero in Kazakhstan!!", he said, in unsteady Japanese, showing how desperately he wants in. This enthusiasm is the main reason the Oyakata of this newly formed heya (last December ) with its 5 deshi, has changed his mind about recruiting a foreign deshi at this early stage of building a new heya.

While being a wrestler, he chanced upon the Eurosport Sumo broadcasts in 2000, and became interested in Sumo. He knew that the likes of Kyokushuuzan were extremely popular in their own countries following their success in Sumo. "I'm going to be a hero, too", he said to himself, and left the wrestling world for Sumo. He left his home and moved to another city where there was a Sumo dohyo, and lived there alone. He did strong keiko every day, to get ready to fulfill his dream.

The year before last, he represented his country in the World Championships and helped his team reach third place. Last year in the Asian championships, he himself came in third.

Nishikido Oyakata: "His body is still soft, but he is powerful. He is at Sandanme level at present, I'd say. I think he'll become a Sekitori in two years". At this stage, he has yet to do keiko on the dohyo in Japan. He is going through the fundamental basics of Shiko, Teppo and Suriashi.

At the beginning of next month, he is slated to be interviewed in Japanese by the NSK, so he has been studying Japanese with the Heya Manager for more than three hours a day.

His only problem so far - he can't stomach that durned natto (fermented soybeans)."As I come from Mitoshi and natto is prevalent there, it's not good (it's not tasty..) that he can't eat it. But even Konishiki managed to get used to it, so it will be OK!!", said Nishikido Oyakata.

"I'll be practicing Japanese and natto", said Swentz.

He has a lot of extra-Sumo keiko to do before he enters the dohyo..

[Manekineko 200]

And when he becomes sekitori, he should have heavenly blue kessho-mawashi with golden eagle and sun of Kazakhstan on it...

Ganbare! (Sigh...)

[Asashosakari 20,200]

Nishikido Oyakata: "His body is still soft, but he is powerful. He is at Sandanme level at present, I'd say. I think he'll become a Sekitori in two years".

That's pretty optimistic, I'd say, seeing that even an obvious great talent like Roho is closing in on a year and a half now without being sekitori yet (although it seems just a matter of time now). But heck, maybe the guy warrants it...should be fun to follow him if he does.

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

Nishikido Oyakata: "His body is still soft, but he is powerful. He is at Sandanme level at present, I'd say. I think he'll become a Sekitori in two years".

That's pretty optimistic, I'd say, seeing that even an obvious great talent like Roho is closing in on a year and a half now without being sekitori yet (although it seems just a matter of time now). But heck, maybe the guy warrants it...should be fun to follow him if he does.

Yes, I thought the same. That's quite a bit more than Takamiyama's belief of Akebono to probably be able to make Juryo sometime (Sigh...)

I hope though, much for the sake of Mitoizumi whom I liked instinctively as a rikishi when I became a fan (despite him being on the way down at the time), that he is in fact right. He has had quite a rough time of late as far as I understand, first with that deceptive woman, then the whole Takasago-affair (whatever the reason was he didn't take over the stable) plus the fact that he lost all his hair in just two years time. It would be nice to see Nishikido-beya flourish. :-)

Edited September 24, 2003 by Yubiquitoyama

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

So far, we have had 148 foreign rikishi from 19 countries, aiming to make it

... more difficult for Kintamayama-zeki to maintain his foreign rikishi page :-D

Nice hypothetical kesho-mawashi Manekineko-zeki (Laughing...)

I don't think Roho is an obvious great talent, but we'll see how he does againast stiffer competition in kyusho.

[Asashosakari 20,200]

I don't think Roho is an obvious great talent, but we'll see how he does againast stiffer competition in kyusho.

Not that much of a difference between ms12 and ms06 (or wherever he'll end up for Kyushu)...

Maybe I should have phrased it as "someone with lots of talent", because I think that's pretty much an unavoidable conclusion about a rikishi that manages to get to the top of Makushita without any make-koshi. Whether he actually makes something of his talent and makes it to the bigtime (say, sanyaku) is a different matter, I agree with that.

Edit: Should be an interesting Kyushu basho with 3 foreigners having a shot at Juryo promotion at once...

Edited September 24, 2003 by Asashosakari

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

I don't think Roho is an obvious great talent, but we'll see how he does againast stiffer competition in kyusho.

I beg to differ. He came in already at a good sumo level and nothing indicates he hasn't and won't improve. I would be very surprised if he didn't make Sanyaku at some point in his career. He certainly has the frame for it.

[Manekineko 200]

And here's the picture of Kazahk deshi with his bald oyakata:

What a hunk! Nishikido-oyakata, naturally. (Laughing...)

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

I guess "great" can be interpreted in many ways (Laughing...) I interpreated it as a significant yokozuna, nothing less. If you call getting to sanyaku great, then OK :-D

[Zentoryu 154]

On the subject of Roho, I saw a number of his bouts from a couple of basho ago. He really didn't display much in terms of talent at the time. It was all slapdowns and pulldowns and moves of trickery to defeat his opponents. No belt technique, no oshi technique, at least none that was put on display. He just wasn't very impressive.

To clarify one thing though: What I wrote above was purely subjective and based on what I saw from him at the time. It is possible he was nursing an injury or simply out of form. Either way, we may not see what he is really made of until he reaches Juryo or Makuuchi.

[furanohana 3]

This came up on the mailing list. Since it is really relevant here (and I don't know if everyone has read it), I copy this post :

> A new foreign deshi, a first from Kazakhstan, has been recruited.
> Amateur sumo rikishi Gudihayen Swentz (クディハイェン・スウェンシ) will
> enter Nishikido beya

His name is actually Khudibayev Suyenesh, but they call him "Tiger" as a
nickname.

He came to Nishikidobeya after a Japanese politician, Mr Hiroyuki Morishita,
visited Kazakhstan.  He was told of Suyenesh's desire to come to Japan and
try himself in pro sumo.  Mr Morishita is a friend of Takasago Oyakata, and
mentioned the matter to him.  Takasago Oyakata, who already has two foreign
rikishi, suggested him to Nishikido Oyakata.  Nishikido Oyakata had some
reservations, but agreed to a trial period to see how he liked the boy and
if the boy himself felt he would be able to adapt to sumo life.  Any
reservations seemed to disappear pretty quickly after they met.

Suyenesh arrived in Japan on September 9th and went to the heya the next day
armed with a few words of Japanese and a Russian / Japanese phrase book.
From the amount of Japanese he has learned in just two weeks, I have no
doubt that he will have learned more Japanese in two months than I have
learned Russian in two years.  He has a keen intelligence, a good sense of
humour and a real willingness to try.

As is so often the case, the newspaper report is not quite accurate.

>(He)left the wrestling world for Sumo.

He has been doing both wrestling and sumo for the past 3 years.

>He left his home and moved to another city where there was a Sumo dohyo, and
lived there alone. .

He went to Almaty to train in wrestling and sumo, and lived in a sports
training facility.  Three or four boys to a room, training morning and
evening, studies during the day, all the cooking, cleaning and washing to
do.  He finds life in Nishikidobeya quite "easy".  He could only go home to
visit his family, who live far from Almaty, once a year in the summer, so he
doesn't feel lonely and he's enjoying the company of his new heyamate
"brothers".

> The year before last, he represented his country in the World
> Championships and helped his team reach third place. Last year in the
> Asian championships, he himself came in third.

This is not entirely accurate and I will post his records later.

> At this stage, he has yet to do keiko on the dohyo in Japan.

Funny?  He was doing keiko the day after he arrived at the heya?

> He is going through the fundamental basics of Shiko, Teppo and Suriashi.

Of course he has to relearn all the basics. There are some differences
between amateur and professional sumo, particularly regarding the tachiai.
(Amateurs put both fists on the dohyo and wait for the gyoji to say
"Hakkeoi" before starting.)  In addition, he has to learn to do sumo the way
his oyakata - not his Kazakhstan sumo coach - thinks it should be done.

He doesn't mind getting up at 6am for keiko but is finding Nishikido's
methodology a bit hard to get used to.  First hour only shiko, second hour
"kihon dosa", basic sumo training exercises like suriashi, teppo etc, and
practice bouts in the third hour.  He's not used to having to do quite so
many shiko and is eager to get to the training part.  Nishikido Oyakata said
that building a strong sumo body is more important than winning.  He ssems
to look at things from a long range perspective.

Having a week off training after the basho came as a very pleasant surprise
for Suyenesh.

Presently there are only 5 deshi in the Nishikidobeya and Suyenesh appears
stronger than all of them.  Fortunately the new Nishikidobeya is right next
door to Hakkaku beya, so he should have some stronger guys to train with
when they move in later in the year.

> At the beginning of next month, he is slated to be interviewed in
> Japanese by the NSK, so he has been studying Japanese with the Heya
> Manager for more than three hours a day.

The manager,Mr Takeno (former Toyokumono of Takasago beya), has also picked
up a few words of Russian!

> His only problem so far - he can't stomach that durned natto (fermented
> soybeans).

Funny?  On Monday he said he liked natto, and joked about the strings.
Natto is sticky - or slimy, depending on your opinion of the stuff - and
when you pick up a few beans, long strings form between the "load" and the
remainder in the bowl.  A bit like those long strings of cheese that hang
off a slice of pizza.  Equally, if not more, inconvenient and messy.

The first day he was there he surprised the Oyakata and his brother (former
Umenosato) by dousing his bowl of rice with ketchup, but then they laughed
remembering that Konishiki used to put mayonnaise on his rice.  Suyenesh
soon noticed that he was the only one using the ketchup and has adapted to
eating rice plain.  At least he likes rice, unlike Onomatsubeya's Russian
recruit, Amuru, who hated it at first.  He tolerates it now - no choice
since Onomatsu Oyakata refused to let him have bread!  Let them eat rice!!!!

Suyenesh is a very promising recruit to sumo.  He should have little trouble
passing his interview and physical exam, so look out for him among the new
boys in November and hopefully we'll see Tiger burning bright up the banzuke
next year.

Katrina

[furanohana 3]

Quite a lot of very interesting details here.

That make one more rikishi to follow through his (I hope so for him) raise trough tghe ranks.

[Asashosakari 20,200]

On the subject of Roho, I saw a number of his bouts from a couple of basho ago. He really didn't display much in terms of talent at the time. It was all slapdowns and pulldowns and moves of trickery to defeat his opponents. No belt technique, no oshi technique, at least none that was put on display. He just wasn't very impressive.

Maybe he was bored about not having any credible opposition. (In a state of confusion...) I'd hope that his Oyakata would admonish him if he was him resting on his physical laurels and not developing any good technique, but who knows. At any rate, a big MK at the bottom of Juryo would likely take care of that problem if it's indeed the case.

[Yoavoshimaru 0]

A bit like those long strings of cheese that hang

off a slice of pizza.  Equally, if not more, inconvenient and messy.

Ooh, that mention of pizza just made me hungry! (Having a pizza...)

I like natto, but pizza, well, that's hard to beat (In a state of confusion...)