When he won his eighth Emperor's Cup on Sunday afternoon, in the eyes of many, yokozuna Harumafuji also guaranteed that ozeki Kisenosato would forever remain in the sport's second rank, never to win the coveted Emperor's Cup.
Not so, say I — at least in as far as that bit about one day getting his hands on the silverware goes.
At age 30 now, and in the professional game since he was 15 when his two-year journey through the lower divisions saw him famously engaged in a rivalry with another up and comer of the same era — Bulgarian Kotooshu (a former ozeki, and current Naruto Oyakata) — the man from Ushiku City in Ibaraki Prefecture has for so many years carried the hopes of a nation on his shoulders.