Terunofuji Haruo

照 ノ 富士 春雄
Terunofuji Haruo

Personal data
real name	Gantulga Ganerdene
Born	November 29, 1991
place of birth	Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
size	1.91 m
Weight	180 kg
Career
Heya	Isegahama
rank	Maegashira
Career record	339–217–78 182–149–44 (makuuchi)
debut	January 2011
Highest rank	Ōzeki (July 2015)
Tournament victories	2 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō)
As of: Nagoya Basho 2020.

Terunofuji Haruo ( Japanese 照 ノ 富士 春雄 ; born November 29, 1991 in Ulaanbaatar as Gantulga Ganerdene ) is a Mongolian sumo wrestler in the Japanese Makuuchi division.

youth

In his childhood Ganerdene was trained in judo by Jigdschidiin Mönchbat, the father of Yokozuna Hakuhō . However, he saw in him a good disposition for sumo and helped him organize his move to Japan . Ganerdene attended Johoku High School in Tottori , which is known for its good sumo program (today's Sekiwake Ichinojō also enjoyed an education at this school a little later).

Beginning of the sumo career

In 2010, Ganerdene joined the Magaki-beya stable at the age of 18. He first received the ring name Wakamishō. He then played his first tournament in professional sumo in July 2011 (and finished it with a 5-2 record). The tournament then won Sakumayama, today's Sekitori Jōkōryū. In November of the same year Wakamishō fought in the fourth highest division ( Sandanme ) and won all of his seven fights there. So there was then a playoff for the tournament victory between Wakamishō (Terunofuji) and Sakumayama (Jōkōryū), which the latter could decide for himself.

In January 2012 he made his debut in the Makushita Division and finished there the first three tournaments with five wins and two losses. In the two subsequent tournaments, however, he received negative tournament results for the first time, whereby he fell back from the Makushita 15 East rank to the Makushita 37 West rank . In the period from November 2012 to July 2013, Wakamishō then managed to complete five tournaments in a row with a positive balance (26 wins, 9 losses). In March 2013, his Magaki-beya stable was closed, after which he moved to the Isegahama-beya stable. There he had the opportunity to train regularly with higher class fighters like Harumafuji , Aminishiki or Takarafuji and thus improve his technique.

Career as a sekitori

After a total of ten tournaments in the Makushita division, he finally made the jump to the second highest division ( Jūryō division) in September 2013 . He then changed his ring name to Terunofuji. He finished his first tournament in Jūryō with a record of 12-3. On the last day he defeated the later maegashira Kagamiō, who was also there with a 12-3 balance. So both fighters faced each other a second time in the playoff for the tournament victory. Terunofuji won again and won the first yusho (tournament victory) in his career. After an 8-7 in November 2013, Terunofuji managed a 12-3 again in January 2014, but this time it was not enough for the tournament victory. In return, he was sure of promotion to the Makuuchi Division.

On his debut in makuuchi, he was 2-7 after nine days, but was able to win all of his remaining six fights and thus achieved his kachi-koshi . In the following tournament he was able to make up for his moderate start (4-6 after ten days) with five wins in a row. With a second 9-6 in July 2014, he made the jump to the highest Maegashira rank ( Maegashira 1 East ). Because of this promotion, Terunofuji encountered eight San'yaku rikishi in the first eight days of the next tournament . He won two of these eight fights (including against Ōzeki Kotoshōgiku on day 1) and finished with a total of 6-9. This was the third and so far last make-koshi of his career. In November 2014, Terunofuji achieved an 8-7. He defeated Ōzeki Kotoshōgiku for the second time as well as the Sekiwake Aoiyama and Ichinojō on the last two days . Another 8-7 followed in January 2015. This time Terunofuji won as Maegashira 2 East against five San'yaku rikishi (the Ōzeki Gōeidō and Kisenosato , Sekiwake Aoiyama and the Komusubi Takayasu and Tochiōzan ). For this achievement he was first awarded the Kantō-shō (price for the best fighting spirit). In addition, Terunofuji was promoted to the rank of sekiwake in March 2015, making him a San'yaku rikishi for the first time . In his first tournament as a sekiwake, Terunofuji managed a victory over yokozuna Hakuhō on day 13 . This ended Hakuho's cross-tournament series of 36 wins in a row. He also beat the two Ōzeki Kotoshōgiku and Gōeidō. His best record so far of 13-2 was enough in the end only for the Jun-Yusho (2nd place behind Hakuhō), a Shukun-shō and another Kantō-shō. In May 2015, Terunofuji won his first yusho in the makuuchi division. Although he lost to Hakuhō this time, his 12-3 record was enough in the end for the overall victory, as Hakuhō suffered his fourth defeat on the last day of the tournament against Terunofuji's stable mate Harumafuji. In addition, Terunofuji received for the third time in a row the Kantō-shō (the fourth Sanshō in his career). Already during the Natsu Basho 2015 there was a possible Ōzeki promotion even though Terunofuji only got eight wins in January and only played his second tournament in San'yaku . On May 27, 2015 he was officially named Ōzeki . On his Ōzeki debut in July, he finished 11-4, making him the most successful of the four Ōzeki at this tournament . At the 2015 Aki Basho he remained unbeaten for eleven days, but then lost three times in a row. In the end he reached the playoff for the tournament victory against Kakuryu with a balance of 12-3 , in which he was defeated by the yokozuna .

Combat Statistics

year	Hatsu (January)	Haru (March)	Natsu (May)	Nagoya (July)	Aki (September)	Kyushu (November)
2011	Maezumo 0-0-4	called off	Maezumo 2-0	Jonokuchi 3 East 5-2	Jonidan 59 West 6-1	Sandanme 93 East 7-0 D
2012	Makushita 58 East 5-2	Makushita 39 West 5-2	Makushita 27 West 5-2	Makushita 15 East 3-4	Makushita 21 West 2-5	Makushita 37 West 4-3
2013	Makushita 31 East 5-2	Makushita 20 West 5-2	Makushita 10 West 6-1	Makushita 4 East 6-1	Juryo 11 West 12-3 Y	Juryo 3 East 8-7
2014	Juryo 1 West 12-3	Maegashira 10 W 8-7	Maegashira 9 East 9-6	Maegashira 6 East 9-6	Maegashira 1 East 6-9	Maegashira 3 West 8-7
2015	Maegashira 2 East 8-7	Sekiwake 1 East 13-2 yrs	Sekiwake 1 East 12-3 Y	Ozeki 2 West 11-4	Ozeki 1 East 12-3 yrs

Oddities

The first three encounters between Terunofuji and Ichinojō were of extraordinary length. The fights of the Kyushu Basho 2014 (2 minutes and 12 seconds), Hatsu Basho 2015 (4 minutes and 48 seconds) and Haru Basho 2015 (3 minutes and 54 seconds) lasted a total of just under 11 minutes. In both January and March a drinking break was ordered after about three minutes.

Terunofuji received four sanshō in the first three tournaments of 2015. No other rikishi received such an award during this period.

Terunofuji is the first rikishi since 1950 to be named Ōzeki after only two tournaments in San'yaku .

Terunofuji is known, among other things, for the use of the extremely rare Kimedashi technique .

See also

List of tournament winners in sumo

Web links

• Info page of the Japanese Sumo Association
• Profile on Sumo Reference

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Terunofuji is the family name, Haruo the first name.