With the retirement of former ozeki Tochinoshin this week, the curtain has fallen on 22 years of Georgian involvement in professional sumo.
A native of Mtskheta — the oldest continuously inhabited European city outside of Greece and Cyprus — Tochinoshin (real name Levan Gorgadze) was the youngest and most successful of the four Georgian rikishi that joined ōzumo between 2001 and 2006.
Although Gorgadze initially struggled to find a stable willing to give him a shot, the former junior world medalist quickly rose up the ranks once he made it into the professional game.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.