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The story
At the Grand Sumo tour stop in Akashi, Takayasu — the oldest wrestler currently in the top makuuchi division — stayed behind alone after practice and kept up shiko (leg-stomping) and suri-ashi (sliding-foot) drills for 30 minutes straight. Now 36, Takayasu is still fighting it out near the top of the division, and while he has reached the rank of ozeki, he has yet to win a top-division championship. On 5channel’s Geino/Sports News+ (芸スポ速報+) thread, some posters praised his steady, workmanlike training with comments like “I just want to see him win a title, even once,” while others cracked jokes playing on the word “shiko,” which also doubles as slang with a very different meaning. Some also pointed out the mental hurdle that keeps tripping him up — he tends to lose whenever a championship race comes down to the wire.
Takayasu stays behind alone to train after Akashi tour stop — oldest top-division wrestler does 30 minutes of shiko and suri-ashi – Sports Nippon
October 20, 2026, 15:10
Takayasu silently stomping through shiko alone in the ring after practice at the Akashi tour stop
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That's exactly it lol
Yeah, that's rough at this point.
not even enough time to shower
since he steps into the ring covered in dirt from head to toe like that
Isn't he just losing because he's worn out from that?
Honestly it's starting to feel kind of pathetic
he won't be the oldest anymore though
Where would they even throw the victory party if Takayasu wins?
Onosato's celebration is held at a hotel in Tsukuba, and Tsuchiura probably doesn't want to let rival Tsukuba steal that spotlight
He loses the regulation bout on the final day and city hall goes 'AAAAAH!'
Then he loses the championship playoff too and city hall goes 'aaaahh……'
It'd be a shame to lose this seasonal tradition
Hoshoryu's too lightweight for that
That's just bad luck
They're just childhood friends because their Filipina mothers knew each other — nothing more, nothing less
He hasn't missed a single basho since his debut, except during the COVID pandemic
An iron man
He gets more disadvantaged by age with every basho that passes
At this point his only shot might be winning from the bottom of the division, where he doesn't face the top guys
Background and talking points
Takayasu has been in the top makuuchi division since his debut there in 2012, and despite having reached ozeki rank, he still has no top-division championship to his name. At 36, he’s currently the oldest wrestler in the division, though Tamawashi is expected to return to makuuchi next basho, making that title a temporary one. The thread split between two reactions: praise for his steady, no-nonsense extra training, and pointed remarks about his tendency to lose once a championship race reaches its final stretch — a mix of admiration for his work ethic and frustration that it hasn’t translated into results. On top of that, the training term “shiko” also carries a separate, slang meaning, which sparked a wave of jokes from posters claiming to have misread the headline. That’s a separate matter from the actual subject of the article — Takayasu’s solo extra training session during the Akashi tour — and should be read as such.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geino/Sports News+) thread “[Sumo] Takayasu stays behind alone to train after Akashi tour stop — oldest top-division wrestler does 30 minutes of shiko and suri-ashi.”
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