“Of course I want to go to Japan and start more training,” said M. Monkhdelger, a 15 year old competing in the Future Champions sumo tournament being held in Ulaanbaatar.

However the competition is fierce, even at the youth level. Winners from each of five age divisions, ranging from 7-16, of the tournament will get to tour Japanese sumo training stables and meet other sumo wrestlers.

“Out of 800 Mongolian sumo wrestlers, only 30 are competing at the professional level,” Kyokushuzan Noboru, called a pioneer of Mongolian sumo, told MonInfo Tuesday afternoon.

The Future Champions tournament is in cooperation with Japanese sumo groups to promote Mongolian sumo for future generations, said Kyokushuzan.

"All Mongolians like to watch sumo and love Asashoryu, but I like Hakuho much better," said Monkhdelger. Hakuho, a 21 year old Mongolian barely missed being promoted to sumo's highest rank during a tournament last spring.

Asashoryu’s repeated success, winning 14 of the last 17 emperor cups, has spawned an even greater desire for kids to learn, said one contestant. Mongolian sumo domination over the past three years has jumpstarted a boom across the steppes of Mongolia, where wrestling has been part of cultural history for nearly 1,000 years.

“In Mongolian culture, all children wrestle,” said the manager of the Mongolian Sumo Wrestling Association, O. Togoldor.

“Now we have three or four clubs doing training and promoting sumo wrestling in Ulaanbaatar.”

Monkhdelger, a member of the Avzaga club trains two hours a day, five days week. A recent win in a club tournament will also allow him to go train in Japan he said.

The small royal hall of the Ulaanbaatar Palace where the tournament is being held is far from the revered dohyo’s of the Japanese sumo halls, but current wreslters feel that the future is bright for Mongolians in sumo.

“Not in the immediate future, but in a few years there will be many Mongolian sumo champions,” said Kyokushuzan.

Mongolia is the number one place to go for future wrestlers, he said, citing this tournament as an example of Japanese interest in developing Mongolia’s sumo.

A competitor's card reads, "Future Champions"

All images Copyright Luke Distelhorst