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Japanese sumo wrestlers bid farewell to London on Sunday after five days of the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall.
The champion was rewarded with a giant bottle of soy sauce.
Hoshoryu, 25 years old, sold the victory to defeat his fellow grand champion Onosato in the decisive fight, finishing the event with a perfect record of 5-0.
La estrella mongola received the prize of a large size together with an equally large Hello Kitty plush to commemorate its triumph.
This was the first visit of the sumo tournament to London in 34 years and only the second time that a complete five-day competition of this magnitude was held outside of Japan.
Crowds packed the Royal Albert Hall all week long to watch the Japanese stars weighing almost 160 kilos perform elaborate rituals and fights of this sport, steeped in a centuries-old tradition.
According to reports, the local atendió demands extraordinary during the stay of the fighters, ordering more than 680 kilos of rice, 1,000 packets of instant miso soup, 750 packets of fideos, 1,050 balls of rice and 400 bottles of salsa de soy.
Hoshoryu, rewarded with a giant bottle of soy sauce after achieving victory at the Royal Albert Hall
Hoshoryu (derecha), 25 years old, sold the victory to defeat Onosato in the decisive match
It is said that each fighter consumes 10,000 calories a day to maintain his peso.
Away from the ring, the athletes became a viral sensation in the English capital: they were seen riding Lime bikes, taking ‘pints’ in Soho pubs and browsing at TK Maxx in Kensington.
Two wrestlers were even photographed at a nearby McDonald’s, where their breakfast order supposedly amounted to almost 20 pounds.
The decisive match between Hoshoryu and Onosato proved tense but brief, with the eventual winner spinning his opponent around before pushing the 191-kilogram wrestler out of the ring to secure the title.
“I’m happy to have made it through five days without injuries,” Hoshoryu declared to the press after the fight.
When asked how he planned to celebrate, he smiled and replied: ‘I haven’t thought about that yet, but I will now.’
At the beginning of the day, Tobizaru, whose name in the ring means ‘mono-flyer’, lost his own opportunity to win the silver medal after being defeated by Takayasu, but he won the Outstanding Performance Award for his exhibitions throughout the week.
Takayasu, a veteran of this sport and several times runner-up in the main Japanese tournaments, received the Premio al Espíritu de Lucha.
Ura, the favorite of the aficionados, won the Technical Prize and the Public Prize, voted by the spectators.
The competition has been considered a success by the organizers, as the ticket sales have exceeded expectations and thousands of fans have attended the daily sessions of previous rituals, sal launch ceremonies and drum music.
