MONGOLIA: SUMO - Sumo champion Asashoryu receives hero's welcome as he returns to Mongolia following retirement

Record ID: 788819

  • Title: MONGOLIA: SUMO - Sumo champion Asashoryu receives hero's welcome as he returns to Mongolia following retirement
  • Date: 13th March 2010
  • Summary: ULAN BATOR, MONGOLIA (MARCH 12, 2010) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE SUMO GRAND CHAMPION ASASHORYU ARRIVING CROWD SURROUNDING ASASHORYU MOVING WITH HIM ASASHORYU WITH FAMILY MEMBERS STANDING ON RED CARPET, WAVING TO CROWDS ASASHORYU AND FAMILY MEMBERS WALKING UP STAIRS GENGHIS KHAN STATUE ASASHORYU WALKING UP TO THE STATUE AND KNEELING DOWN PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PICTURES ASASHORYU BOWING HIS HEAD, TURNING BACK TO THE CROWD AND WAVING ASASHORYU LEAVING AND ENTERING GOVERNMENT HOUSE CROWD ON THE SQUARE DISPERSING (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) CHULUUNKHUUGIIN TSOODOLSUREN SAYING: "I would love to see him in a Mongolian wrestling championship." (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) 63-YEAR-OLD DORJIIN NOROLKHOO SAYING: "He was about to set new sumo records. But things didn't work out well for him. I feel sad and I think it's a pity. But it's o.k. he's back to Mongolia and will do many great things. He's still young. I really respect, support and love him." (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) 65-YEAR-OLD TSERENDORJIIN DULAMDORJ SAYING: "There are other strong Mongolian guys who are wrestling now to continue in the path of the grand champion. He pointed out he has high hopes for 'Ama' Byambadorj. I am very confident that the line of Mongolian wrestling champions will not fade." VARIOUS OF SUKHBAATAR SQUARE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mongolia
  • Country: Mongolia
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA78TL1YDBZG76OP0B4J9P9LUH9
  • Story Text: Former sumo grand champion Asashoryu receives an official welcome back home in Ulan Bator and visits a statue of Genghis Khan with his parents, after returning to Mongolia following his retirement from the sport.
    Troubled sumo grand champion Asashoryu was officially welcomed back in his native Mongolia on Friday (March 12).
    Asashoryu returned to Ulan Bator on Thursday (March 11), following an announcement in Japan last month that he would retire from the ancient sport.
    Dressed in traditional Mongolian attire, and accompanied by his parents, Asashoryu walked along a red carpet to a statue of Genghis Khan, the Mongolian warrior-ruler who founded the Mongol empire.
    Asashoryu prayed at the statue, before entering the Government House in the centre of the Mongolian capital.
    The controversial champion announced his retirement from sumo at an emotional news conference in February, following a probe into reports of a drunken scuffle in Tokyo in January.
    Asashoryu has often been caught in controversy outside the sumo ring, but is popular with his fans for his exploits in it.
    He was born Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj, and won his 25th Emperor's Cup in January, but sumo officials took a dim view of his latest apparent breach of discipline.
    The head of Asashoryu's sumo stable told Japanese media that the Mongolian grand champion had been too drunk to remember the reported incident outside a nightclub in the early hours of January 16.
    But despite his trials and tribulations, his compatriots said they stood firmly behind him, and expressed their support.
    Twenty-year-old Chuluunkhuugiin Tsoodolsuren, from the central province of Uvurkhangai Aimak hoped the sumo champion would continue his career back in Mongolia.
    "I would love to see him in a Mongolian wrestling championship," Chuluunkhuugiin said.
    Dorjiin Norolkhoo, aged 63, was sad about the latest turn of events but optimistic about the wrestler's future.
    "He was about to set new sumo records. But things didn't work out well for him. I feel sad and I think it's a pity. But it's OK, he's back to Mongolia and will do many great things. He's still young. I really respect, support and love him," Dorjiin said.
    Another fan, 65-year-old Tserendorjiin Dulamdorj, believed other Mongolians would continue in his footsteps.
    "There are other strong Mongolian guys who are wrestling now to continue in the path of the grand champion. He pointed out he has high hopes for 'Ama' Byambadorj. I am very confident that the line of Mongolian wrestling champions will not fade," Tserendorjiin said.
    Asashoryu has frequently been at odds with the sport's hierarchy during an explosive career, for everything from pulling an opponent's hair to starting a soapy bathroom brawl during a post-bout soak.
    In 2007, Asashoryu was suspended after playing in a charity football match in Mongolia after having supplied a fake doctor's note for an apparent back injury.
    That suspension triggered a bout of clinical depression, leading Asashoryu to seek solace at a luxury spa resort in his native country.
    He was often criticised by Japanese media for not showing "hinkaku" (dignity) as grand champion, but has said that his style in the ring showed his real commitment.
    His retirement leaves the traditional sport, with origins dating to the mythological founding of Japan, with only one yokozuna, or grand champion sumo wrestler, fellow Mongolian Hakuho.
    In recent years, sumo has attracted many foreign wrestlers, while most young Japanese have shunned the sport's harsh lifestyle, exhausting training and rigid society.
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