The north Estonian town of Rakvere is an unlikely venue for a world championship of any sort, let alone the exotic rituals of Japanese Sumo wrestling.

Yet thanks to the feats of a local boy made good, Rakvere (population 17,000) will host the 16th Sumo world championships on Saturday and Sunday.

Around 400 competitors from 32 different countries will be going toe-to-toe on specially built rings or 'doyos' in Rakvere's gleaming new sports hall as they bid to be crowned world champion.

As well as the main competition for men, junior and women's championships will be taking place in parallel.

The unlikely Sumo connection between Estonia and Japan dates back to 2004 when Riho Rannikmaa, the "father" of Estonian Sumo sent two Estonians to Japan to train as potential wrestlers.

One quickly returned home, but the other, a former nightclub doorman and judo enthusiast called Kaido Hoovelson, who was born 40 kilometres from Rakvere, stayed.

Today, he is known to millions of Japanese by his Sumo name, 'Baruto', and his nickname, 'Earthquake' thanks to his imposing 1.97- metre, 172-kilo frame.

Baruto has amassed considerable wealth and has helped to spread the word about his homeland in his adopted land.

On the back of Baruto's success, Rakvere mayor Andres Jaadia contacted the International Sumo Federation and managed to attract the world junior championships to his town in 2006. It proved such a success that this year the senior event joined it.

"Popularity is rising in Estonia thanks to Baruto, but even though Rakvere is a very small town, people are quite interested," Margus Martin, one of the local organisers, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"The next world championships will take place in Cairo, Egypt, which has a population about four times bigger than the whole of Estonia, so this will help to raise the profile of our country," he said.