Baruto Pulls Out of Fukuoka Tournament, Loses Ozeki Rank
A leg injury has forced Estonia's top-division sumo wrestler, Kaido Höövelson, to make an early exit from the last of this season's six grand tournaments, a move that will cost him his ozeki rank.
The 28-year-old, known best under his sumo name Baruto, lost the third bout of the Kyushu basho in Fukuoka by default and decided not to continue through the remaining 12 days of the event.
"To be honest, at the time I didn't know exactly what happened," Baruto said, as quoted by Postimees. "But I cannot go on with the tournament. I have a left hamstring muscle tear, which means that the muscle is completely torn. I hurt my knee a little bit as well, but it's not a big deal."
The development marks a disappointing end to what had started out as a promising season for Baruto. He had come out the champion of the January tournament, but barely scraped by in the May event, where he reportedly had a fever. He then dropped out of the Aki basho in September after sustaining a broken toe.
Failure to win the majority of his bouts in two tournaments in a row means Baruto will be demoted from ozeki, the second-highest rank in sumo, to sekiwake.
He has a chance to regain his ozeki status by winning at least ten of the 15 bouts at the next tournament in January. Failure to do so will put him on equal footing with all other sekiwake wrestlers looking to advance.
Baruto said his situation "shouldn't be overdramatized" and that he is now focusing on his month-long therapy to treat the injury.