Wakanohō Toshinori

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

若ノ鵬寿則
Wakanohō Toshinori
Personal information

Birth name	Soslan Aleksandrovich Gagloev
Date of birth	July 8, 1988 (1988-07-08) (age 19)
Place of birth	Russia
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Weight	156 kg (340 lb)
Career*
Heya	Magaki
Current rank	Maegashira 2
Record	127-70-0
Debut	March 2005
Highest rank	Maegashira 2 (May, 2008)
Yusho	1 (Jonidan)
* Career information is correct as of May 2008.

Wakanohō Toshinori (born July 8, 1988 as Soslan Aleksandrovich Gagloev in Alagir, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania in the Russian Federation) is a sumo wrestler. His highest rank has been maegashira 2.

1 Career
2 Top division record
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Career

He was a freestyle wrestler in Russia, but as his weight continued to increase past the 120 kg (260 lb) upper limit for competitions, he switched to sumo.^[1]Having known fellow Russian sumo wrestler Rohō for many years, when he first arrived in Japan he stayed at Rohō's training stable, Ōtake-beya, for about six months to learn the basics.^[1] Due to the restrictions on foreigners, he could not join that stable, but its stablemaster Taihō had connections to the former Wakanohana Kanji II, and he joined Magaki stable instead.^[1] His shikona of Wakanohō was formed as a combination of Wakanohana II and Taihō's names.^[1]

Wakanohō made his professional debut in March 2005. He moved through the lower divisions quickly, winning the championship in the jonidan division in May 2005 with a perfect 7-0 record. It took him a year to climb up the third makushita division and in November 2006 a 4-3 record at Makushita 1 East earned him promotion to the second juryo division and elite sekitori status. In his juryo debut he managed only five wins against ten losses, his first ever make-koshi or losing score and was demoted. However, he returned to the second division in May 2007 and three solid performances of 10-5, 8-7 and 10-5 earned him promotion to the top makuuchi division in November 2007. He was the sixth youngest wrestler to reach makuuchi in the modern era.^[2]He came through with nine wins against six losses in his top division debut, and a 10-5 mark in January 2008 saw him move into the upper maegashira ranks for the March 2008 tournament. Fighting all the top ranked wrestlers for the first time, he defeated ozeki Kaiō and secured his kachi-koshi or winning record on the final day.

During the May 2008 tournament he was reprimanded by the Japan Sumo Association after he smashed a shelf in the dressing room following a spectacular defeat to Ama by the rare technique of utchari.^[3] However he once again secured his majority of wins on the final day, meaning he has yet to suffer make-koshi in the top division.

Wakanohō has on occasion jumped straight up into the air at the tachi-ai or initial charge, an highly unorthodox move which some commentators have put down to youthful bravado. He has also been criticised for relying too much on side-steps and slap-downs.^[4]

[edit] Top division record

Wakanohō Toshinori ^[5]
	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2007	x	x	x	x	x	West Maegashira #13 9–6
2008	East Maegashira #10 10–5	East Maegashira #4 8–7	West Maegashira #2 8–7	x	x	x
Record given as win-loss-absent Championship Retired Demoted from makuuchi Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique Also shown: ★=Kinboshi Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira