栃ノ心 剛 Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi
Personal information
Born	Levan Gorgadze (1987-10-13) October 13, 1987 (age 24) Mtskheta, Georgia
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	159 kg (350 lb; 25.0 st)
Career
Heya	Kasugano
Current rank	see below
Debut	March, 2006
Highest rank	Komusubi (July, 2010)
Yūshō	1 (jūryō)
Sanshō	Fighting Spirit (3)
* Career information is correct as of Nov 2011.

Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi (born 13 October 1987 as Levan Gorgadze, Georgian: ლევან გორგაძე) is a professional sumo wrestler from Mtskheta, Georgia. He is a member of the Kasugano stable and made his debut in March 2006. He reached the top makuuchi division just two years later in May 2008. His highest rank has been komusubi.

Career [link]

As a teenager he practised judo and sambo. He competed in amateur sumo at the World Junior Championships in 2004, held in Osaka, Japan and at the World Championships in 2005. He trained at the prestigious Nichidai sumo club at Nihon University^[1] and it was a member of that club who encouraged him to turn professional.

At the beginning of 2006 he was recruited by the former sekiwake Tochinowaka. After eleven straight kachi-koshi or winning scores he gained sekitori status in January 2008 upon promotion to the jūryō division and immediately took the yusho or championship in that division with a 12-3 record.

He took his first ever make-koshi or losing score in his top division debut in May 2008, but still won enough bouts to remain in the division. He reached maegashira 4 in November 2008, but facing the highest ranking men for the first time he could only record three wins against twelve losses. However, in July 2009 he produced a good score of 9-6 at maegashira 5, and was promoted to his highest ever rank of maegashira 1 in the September tournament. He could manage only four wins there, but had the best result of his career to date in November, finishing runner-up to Hakuho on 12-3 and winning his first special prize, Fighting Spirit. However, his defeat to Hokutoriki on the final day cost him a chance of making his debut in the titled sanyaku ranks in January 2010.

In the May 2010 tournament he defeated four ozeki in a row from Days 2 to 5 (becoming only the second man below sekiwake to achieve this, following Masurao in March 1987) and won his second Fighting Spirit prize (shared with Aran). He was rewarded with promotion to komusubi for the first time in the July 2010 tournament. He fell short with a 6-9 record, but returned to komusubi in November.

In May 2011 he equalled his best ever top division performance, once again finishing runner-up to Hakuho on 12-3 and winning another Fighting Spirit prize. This saw him return to the komusubi rank for the July 2011 tournament. His poor performance in November, scoring only 2-13, could be attributed to the fact that he was banned from training before the tournament by his stablemaster as punishment for breaking the heya's rules on curfew and wearing Western style clothes in public.

Tochinoshin in May 2009.

He is on friendly terms with fellow countryman Kokkai, who helped him in his early days in Japan when he was suffering from homesickness.

Fighting style [link]

Tochinoshin favours yotsu-sumo techniques, preferring to grapple with rather than push his opponents. His favourite grip on the mawashi is migi-yotsu, meaning he likes his right hand inside and his left hand outside his opponent's arms. His most common winning technique or kimarite is yori kiri or force out, but he also uses his left hand grip to good effect by regularly employing uwatenage, or overarm throw.

Career record [link]

See also [link]

• List of sumo tournament second division winners
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

• Japan Sumo Association profile