No Maezumo at Kyushu: Shikoroyama Calls It 'Lonely' as His Two Recruits Can't Face Each Other
All four applicants passed the new-recruit exam for the Kyushu basho, but there will be no maezumo, Nikkan Sports reports. Two of them, Yamada Hayato and Kudo Daichi, both 16, belong to Shikoroyama stable and cannot meet in a honbasho. The other two, Zadoroznoi Anatoli (20, Hidenoyama) from Estonia and Lauvsuren Myangambayar (24, Otake) from Mongolia, cannot compete until they get performance visas and are expected to debut at the January basho or later. No re-entering rikishi were registered either.
Shikoroyama (ex-komusubi Homasho): 'This is just luck of the draw. But lonely is lonely. Maezumo is the very first time you step on the dohyo, so I wish I could have let them experience it.' He added that it has happened before, when a recruit was alone and during the COVID period: 'It's fine to just say "these things happen."' Yamada and Kudo will appear in the shinjo shusse hiro this basho and are expected to debut in jonokuchi in January.