Japan Sumo Association chairman Hakkaku made sekiwake Takayasu's promotion to sumo's second highest rank a certainty on Sunday.

Hakkaku said he will convene an extraordinary meeting of the JSA board of directors to consider Takayasu's promotion to ozeki. To date, the board has never rejected a proposed promotion. The move was made at the request of sumo elder Nishonoseki, the JSA's judging director and the man in charge of wrestlers' promotions.

"Most of all, I feel like this is finally over," Takayasu said. "Frankly speaking, I want to really enjoy this. For 15 days I put it all out there, and now all that weight's off my shoulders."

"When I entered sumo, I never dreamed this come to be, so it's hard to believe."

Takayasu, whose mother is from the Philippines, finished the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament with an 11-4 record. He has now won 34 bouts over three consecutive tournaments -- with 33 considered a prerequisite for promotion to ozeki.

The tournament champion, yokozuna Hakuho, who is from Mongolia, mentioned Takayasu's heritage in his victory speech on Sunday.

"Because Takayasu's mother is from the Philippines, I want to offer my congratulations to the nation of the Philippines," said Hakuho, whose 38 grand sumo tournament championships are the most in history.

If all goes according to plan, Takayasu will officially become an ozeki on Wednesday following the board meeting and another meeting to determine the rankings for July's Nagoya grand tournament.

Takayasu, who thrives on strong shoving and thrusting, failed in his first promotion attempt last November, when he went 7-8 after recording 23 wins in the previous two tournaments. But the 27-year-old bounced back this year with 23 wins from the January and March tournaments.

The soon-to-be ozeki finished the tournament with a defeat to Mongolian Terunofuji, who in 2015 became the last wrestler to achieve promotion to ozeki.