Ōsunaarashi Kintarō

大砂嵐 金太郎 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 3 (July, 2014)
Championships	1 (Jonokuchi) 1 (Makushita)
Gold Stars	2 (Harumafuji, Kakuryū)
* Up to date as of Apr 27, 2015.

Ōsuna-arashi (大砂嵐金太郎) (born February 10, 1992 as Abdelrahman Shalan) is a sumo wrestler from Egypt. He is the first pro sumo wrestler from the African continent. Ōsuna-arashi, 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. Ōsuna-arashi 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]

Early life and sumo background

Sharan was born in the Dakahlia Governorate, near Cairo, Egypt. Through an acquaintance, he became involved in amateur sumo at the age of sixteen. In 2008, he won a national sumo tournament in the open weight class and later that year came in third place in a junior international tournament. Then in 2011 he took third place in the upper weight class in the same junior international tournament. 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

Ōsuna-arashi 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. 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 his highest rank to date of 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.^[2] He then beat yokozuna Harumafuji on the very next day.^[3] He is currently the most senior ranked wrestler in his stable.

Sharan 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. Also tournaments often coincide with Ramadan, which he has admitted has made his tournament appearances at this time more challenging as he has to train and wrestle on an empty stomach.^[1]

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).

Career record

See also

• List of active kinboshi earners
• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References

External links

• Ōsunaarashi Kintarō's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage
• Rueters