Terunofuji Haruo

Terunofuji Haruo
照ノ富士 春雄
Personal information
Born	Gantulga Ganerdene (1991-11-29) November 29, 1991 Ulan-Bator, Mongolia
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	178 kg (392 lb)
Career
Stable	Magaki→Isegahama
Current rank	see below
Debut	January, 2011
Highest rank	Sekiwake (March, 2015)
Championships	1 (Jūryō)
Special Prizes	Fighting Spirit (2) Outstanding Performance (1)
* Up to date as of Apr 27, 2015.

Terunofuji Haruo (born 29 November 1991 as Gantulga Ganerdene) is a sumo wrestler from Ulan-Bator, Mongolia. He took the second division jūryō championship in his debut in the professional ranks in September 2013. His highest rank is sekiwake.

Early life and sumo background

In childhood, Ganerdene was coached in judo by the father of yokozuna Hakuhō, but, his coach saw in him a predisposition for sumo and helped arrange for him to move to Japan as a student at Tottori Johoku High School to join its well-known sumo program. This was the same high school sumo program that current sekitori Ichinojō would also join after him. As a third year student, Gerdene's team took the championship at a national inter-high school sumo tournament.

Career

Early career

Upon graduating, he chose to turn professional and joined Magaki stable. He entered the ring in the same tournament as soon to be well-known Chiyotairyū and Jōkōryū. Upon entering he was given the ring name of Wakamisho. From his first pro tournament in July 2011 he excelled, posting only three losses in three tournaments and spending only one tournament in each of the lower divisions of jonokuchi, jonidan and sandanme. In his sandanme tournament in November 2011, he had a perfect 7-0 record and participated in a playoff for the championship, which he lost to the aforementioned Jōkōryū, then still known as Sakumayama. From his third division makushita debut in January 2012, he had three consecutive 5-2 records before posting two consecutive losing tournaments in July and September 2012, the only two of his career up to that point. He bounced back from this in the following November tournament, garnering a 4-3 record. For the next four tournaments his success continued and he never had more than two losses in any tournament. During the period, his stable closed, and he transferred to Isegahama stable. This change did little to disrupt his sumo, and at Isegahama he was able to practice with many higher ranked wrestlers to improve his technique. His 6-1 record at makushita 4 in July 2013 was enough to earn him promotion to the salaried ranks of jūryō in September 2013.

Upon entering jūryō he changed his ring name to Terunofuji, reflecting the tradition of wrestlers at his new stable of having "fuji" at the end of their ring names as the head of the stable did in his days as the 63rd yokozuna Asahifuji.^[1] Terunofuji took the championship in his debut tournament, beating future maegashira Kagamiō on the last day to even their records and forcing a playoff bout against Kagamiō, which he also won. This success followed in the footsteps of the popular Endō who in the previous tournament also took the jūryō championship in his debut in said division. An 8-7 record in the following November tournament and an even more impressive 12-3 record against a host of wrestlers with makuuchi experience in the January 2014 tournament earned him promotion to the top makuuchi division in March 2014.

Makuuchi division

His debut in the makuuchi division looked to be a disaster, and he had only a 2-7 record on the 9th day. However from then on he won 6 straight bouts in 6 days to pull out a kachikoshi or winning tournament. Then in the following May tournament he started out with an unpromising 4-6 record, but then won 5 straight to finish with a strong showing of 9-6. The next few tournaments would show if Terunofuji has the consistency to remain a fixture in makuuchi.^[2] He posted winning records in three of the four remaining tournaments in 2014, reaching the rank of Maegashira 1.

In the January 2015, he defeated the ōzeki Gōeidō and Kisenosato, the sekiwake Aoiyama and both active komusubi on the way to an 8-7 record. He was awarded the Fighting Spirit sanshō, his first special prize. He was promoted to the rank of sekiwake for the next tournament.

In the March Grand Tournament of 2015, he defeated yokozuna Hakuhō (unbeaten in his last 36 matches) for the first time in four meetings, and finished runner-up with a 13-2 record, having also defeated both komsusbi as well as the ōzeki Gōeidō and Kotoshōgiku. He received his second Fighting Spirit award and was also awarded the sanshō for Outstanding Performance. After his final contest he said "I’ll shoot for double-digit wins at the next tournament and hopefully that will lead to victory. Now I just want to take a long rest".^[3]

Career record

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo tournament second division champions

References