Promising amateurs lost to the sumo world

[Akinomaki 40,832]

Of course the main one here is Hanada Hidetora.

Lost to rugby is this kid, Keitatsu Motoyama (187cm, 127kg), 2nd year at Nagasaki Nanzan high, in 5th year primary school he won a Kyushu tournament and was at the national middle school tournament in his 3rd year - and had scouting attempts from ozumo.

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A foreigner who was plagued by injury - and with this likely also got no place at a heya:

The winner of last year's national select high school Kochi tournament in March - the final tournament of the school year - ファンベク・カジムラト (Fanvek?) Kajimurat/Kazhymurat (then 188cm, 110kg) from Kazakhstan returned home after graduating from the same Meguro Nichidai high as Kinbozan and switched to wrestling, aiming for the Olympics. He was among the first term members of the sumo club of the school, which was established in 2020 (hard to believe for a Nichidai affiliated school - thus Kinbozan wasn't at the club). He came to Japan in October that year and started with sumo then, having judo and martial arts experience. Kochi just 1 and a half year later was his first national tournament - it is not that important, because the 3rd years who may go into sumo around the time don't compete there. Much was expected from him, but due to a shoulder injury he wasn't at the national tournaments in 3rd year. https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2023/04/12/kiji/20230412s00005000456000c.html

https://zutto-sports.com/senbatsu-sumo-results

on the left - later high school yokozuna Takayama was 3rd https://twitter.com/shigihara/status/1506240729127190528

Edited April 19, 2023 by Akinomaki