Report from the 8th Sumó World
Championships, Sat & Sun 4 & 5-Dec-1999
The 8th Sumó World Championships were the first world
sumó championships to be held outside of Japan. They took place on the
weekend of 4th December 1999 in the German city of Riesa, near Dresden.
Sachsen Arena where the tournament was held.
The tournament was held in Sachsen Arena which was
constructed this year and features a statue of four sumó wrestlers
playing musical instruments outside of the arena.
Opening ceremony
Unfortunately, since the organizer did not secure
participation of women from at least 16 nations and 4 continents, the
included women's event could not qualify for IFS' criteria of a World
Championships event and was therefore held as Shin Sumó Riesa World
Competition.
Bulgarian team, left to right: Svetoslav Binev, Petar Stoyanov.
Binev came to Riesa with high hopes, the lightweight has
captured the European title twice already and wanted to accomplish the
same feat by becoming the World Champion second year in a row.
Binev defeats Kevin Emslie of Great Britain in the semi-finals.
Emanuel Yarbrough of the USA (left) fights Fred
Craig of New Zealand in the teams contest.
Levan Ebanoidze (left) of Georgia and Yuri Golubovski of Russia.
Both athletes prepared themselves for the Championships
in Japan for two weeks. They took part in a training camp at Nihon
University in Tókyó, Ebanoidze came as part of the Top
European team, featuring best European sumó wrestlers in individual
weight categories, and Golubovski came on his own at the same time. Both
capitalized on their experiences, Ebanoidze taking the Gold in the open
category, Golubovski finishing 3rd.
Ebanoidze (right) before beating Tóru Kakizoe of Japan in the final of
open division by hataki-komi.
Eduard Grams of Germany (right) beats Fabio Ikemori
of Brazil by uwate-nage in the middle-weight division.
Robert Paczków of Poland beats Ronny Allman of
Norway in the teams contest.
Hideto Tsushima of Japan eyes Kena Heffernan of the
USA in the middleweight semifinal.
Tsushima beats Heffernan by sukuinage.
Wayne Vierra, USA, (left) getting ready to fight
Hans Blom, Netherlands, in the heavyweight division.
Vierra beats Blom by sukuinage.
Marek Paczków (right) of Poland, 115kg, beat
Emanuel Yarbrough, 320kg in the team semifinals to help Poland advance to
the final.
Jacek Jaracz (right) of Poland before beating Wayne
Vierra in the team semifinals.
Middleweight awards ceremony, from left: Aap
Uspenski, Estonia, Hideto Tsushima, Japan, Marek Paczków, Poland,
Borislav Belchev, Bulgaria.
Tsedendamba Bayarsaikhan of Mongolia after the
heavyweight awards ceremony. The Mongolian came second after losing to
Japan's Takahisa Osanai. Nevertheless, the Mongolians, which came in great
numbers to the Championships, were very proud of him.
Team awards
Open category awards, left to right: Tóru Kakizoe,
Japan, Levan Ebanoidze, Georgia, Libor Dezso, Hungary, Yuri Golubovski,
Russia.
Team awards
Farewell party after the tournament
