{"id":174498,"date":"2025-11-25T11:12:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=174498&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2025-11-25T11:12:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:12:34","slug":"aonishiki-becomes-first-ukrainian-born-winner-of-kyushu-basho","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/aonishiki-becomes-first-ukrainian-born-winner-of-kyushu-basho\/","title":{"rendered":"Aonishiki Becomes First Ukrainian-Born Winner of Kyushu Basho"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aonishiki<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who became the first Ukrainian-born wrestler to win a makuuchi title, held a press conference one day after securing his first championship at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament. The 21-year-old, the sport\u2019s fourth-youngest champion, reflected on the celebrations and said his parents were moved when he called them after the victory. He noted that he had not expected to win but was pleased with the result and the support during the tournament. With his strong record, his promotion to ozeki at the next ranking announcement is viewed as certain. <\/span><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/kbc.co.jp\/news\/article.php?id=16445324&amp;ymd=2025-11-24\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KBC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fnn_sumo-aonishiki_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1400%2C788&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Aonishiki Becomes First Ukrainian-Born Winner of Kyushu Basho\" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-174501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fnn_sumo-aonishiki_2025_cl.jpg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fnn_sumo-aonishiki_2025_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fnn_sumo-aonishiki_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fnn_sumo-aonishiki_2025_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aonishiki, who became the first Ukrainian-born wrestler to win a makuuchi title, held a press conference one day after securing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29305,"featured_media":174501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-174498","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-prefecture","news-category-sports","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/174498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}