The leadership pack has been whittled down rather quickly. Among the sanyaku, with three wins we’ve got Hakuho, Kakuryu, and Kisenosato. Hakuho brought a convincing halt Mitakeumi’s run. Mitakeumi still looked solid but Hakuho is still far too skillful. Likewise, Kakuryu forced out Uncle Taka and gets his own shot with Mitakeumi tomorrow. From there, the leaders fall off to those among the rank-and-file.
Of more interest to me is the state of our ozeki. I find it telling that Kotoshogiku is finding it much harder to win with his straight-forward hippity-hoppity. In football, we talk about veteran receivers or corners who’ve “lost a step.” Giku’s in the same boat, having lost leg power. For Tochinoshin, he needs to start finding ways to beat these ozeki if he wants to stay in the sanyaku ranks.
Bruce has covered the interesting bits from today. Nothing more to see here. On to day 4.
That bout between Mitakeumi and Hakuho was a thing of beauty. I had to re-watch it a few times to get all of the sumo goodness Hakuho packed into a blink of an eye. Any doubts I had about him still being less than all together are gone.
Shohozan’s second can of whoop-ass in two days, this time it pays off. I am worried about Harumafuji now, he’s clearly hurt and I would rather he sit out kyujo than intai at this point. He has plenty to offer sumo if he can get those ankles right again.
Much as I love Takayasu, I am really sad to see Goeido 1.0 continue on. That Aki Goeido prototype was so much fun, what kind of magic is needed to bring that one back?
Kisenosato looks really bored. More than usual. His day 3 bout was so hilarious I muted the sound and added his internal thoughts. Mostly about soup and cleaning his kitchen. The home crowd went wild. He was also bored today. Someone please give the big man a worthy opponent soon! Or let him go drive that dump truck around for a while.
Tamawashi did in fact give Shodai a spanking today. I know many have pinned hopes on Shodai, he has a ways to go still.
Osunaarashi is still dominating the Chiyo swarm, but is clearly hurt. It makes me wince to watch this man turn out every day and push to win. Day 4 we get a showdown between Osunaarashi and Sadanoumi, who are both 3-0