Leaders:

Hakuho faced the man mountains of Aoiyama today. The Bulgarian blasted at Hakuho with an impressively fierce tachiai. However, Hakuho quickly recovered and secured a right-handed grip on Aoiyama’s mawashi. As soon as he was able to get that left hand grip, it was over. He began gingerly walking Aoiyama back toward the edge and threw him off the edge.

Kakuryu got into a brawling slap-fest with Myogiryu but prevailed with a hatakikomi slap down. Terunofuji rather casually tossed Tochiozan into the crowd to stay on pace. Well, it wasn’t quite that easy and Tochiozan remains in the hunt at 4-1. Kagamio also showed good strength in his yorikiri win over Hidenoumi to stay among the leaders. He faces the Juryo ranked Kagayaki tomorrow.

The Rest:

Kisenosato (4-1) stayed one loss back by dispatching the winless Ikioi. Ikioi always goes full-on and it’s great to watch and root for. However, Kisenosato was never in any real danger as he quickly locked Ikioi’s right arm and dragged him across the ring for a finishing throw. I like to see this version of Kaisei. He is also 4-1, quickly getting Okinoumi (3-2) going in the wrong direction. Oosunaarashi’s high-energy, aggressive brand of sumo is formidable and Tamawashi was not able to keep up. The Sand Storm stays one loss off pace at 4-1.

Goeido had nothing against Ichinojo. He seemed surprised that a strong tachiai didn’t move the 200 kg Mongolian. Instead, he just stood there, presumably thinking “what do I do now?”, but leaving himself vulnerable on the edge of the ring. Ichinojo just gave him a quick shove and off the dohyo he went. Both wrestlers stand at an unimpressive 2-3. Kotoshogiku (2-3) looked back to his old self as his jack-rabbit leg thrusts forced Tochinoshin to fall to 0-5. Sokokurai made a brief appearance back in Prime Time but a well executed nodowa gave Takanoiwa his first win of the tournament.