Asahitaka Koichi - 旭鷹 光一 (born July 7, 1973) is a former Mongolian professional sumo wrestler from Ulaanbaatar. He made his debut in March 1992 and last wrestled for Oshima stable. His highest rank was sandanme 97 and he retired in September 1993.
Early Life[]
Batjargal Tserenchimed was born on July 7th, 1973, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In late 1991, a Japanese sumo training stable master, Oshima-oyakata (the former ozeki Asahikuni) went to Mongolia to recruit promising wrestlers for sumo. The young Tserenchimed happened to notice the advertisement and applied along with 120 others. He was selected and went to Japan with five others, including Kyukotenho and Kyokushuzan.
Career[]
He made his professional debut in March 1992 under the shikona "Asahitaka" (旭鷹). However six months later, due to cultural differences, language problems, and an extremely hard training regime, five of them including Asahitaka ran away from the training stable to the Mongolian embassy. He was eventually persuaded to return by his stablemaster's wife, and also Kyokutenzan. He reached a career-high sandanme 97 in January 1993.
Retirement from Sumo[]
After sitting out of four consecutive tournaments he was guaranteed to fall off the banzuke so his retirement was announced after the September 1993 tournament.
Fighting Style[]
Like many of his Mongolian compatriots, Asahitaka was very technical in his sumo and won many bouts with trips and throws. His most common winning kimarite was ashitori, or leg pick. Out of his 22 career wins, he employed 13 different moves which involved extremely rare moves such as sotomuso (outer thigh propping twist down) and tsuriotoshi (lifting body slam). He never won a match by yorikiri (force out) which is the most common kimarite in sumo.
Record[]
Division Results[]
- Total: 22-13-28/35 (10 basho)
- Sandanme: 3-4/7 (1 basho)
- Jonidan: 14-7-21/21 (6 basho)
- Jonokuchi: 5-2-7/7 (2 basho)
Shikona History[]
- Asahitaka Koichi (1992.03 -1993.09)
Gallery[]
