Some headlines from the previous week in sumo:
- The Haru basho starts in 21 days. The tournament’s banzuke will be released a week from today.
- Over the previous week, all rikishi have attended mandatory training classes conducted by the NSK. The goal has been to teach sumo’s athletes how to conduct themselves, in the hope of avoiding repeats of recent scandals involving bad conduct in public.
- Yokozuna Kakuryu is struggling to recover from a pair of injuries suffered during January’s hatsu basho. He underwent surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left ankle earlier but is hampered by a dislocated right ring finger injury suffered in a match against Goeido.
- Kokonoe heya mainstay Chiyonokuni celebrated his recent marriage with a grand and broadly attended reception in Tokyo this past week.
- Yokozuna Hakuho continues to face difficulties in training related to re-injury of his big toe. Last year, he underwent surgery to remove a bone chip from that toe, but injury during the January basho forced him to withdraw from the competition.
- Grand Sumo Breakdown has published a new podcast: The First Yokozuna. Go forth and listen!
I miss sumo so much, I need the Haru Basho to hurry up.
Question about Kakuryu: what do you think will be the likely consequences if he goes kyujo?
+1
I think at this point the executioner’s blade is not out for him, or anyone. But the NSK is not going to be happy if we end up with a “No-kozuna” basho. However it will be awesome for the mad-cap brawl that will ensue.
Are we going to wind up with no Yokozunas in the upcoming tournament? Hakuho and Kakuryu are injured; and Kisenosato is either physically or mentally broken (probably both).
Sure looks like they are preparing us for that possibility, doesn’t it? God, I hate that thought. You wait two months for a tournament and the big guys are too banged up to participate. Ugh.
As much as I’d hate to go without any Yokozuna in March, if that is the case then I think it would be an excellent oppertunity for Takayasu or Goeido to take home a Yusho. I was thrilled about Tochinoshin’s win, but I think it’s time for our two Ozeki to start making their mark in the Yusho race. The days of Hakuho and Kakuryu are coming to an end, and it’s time for some new blood to pick up the white rope.
GMC, my thoughts precisely. Takayasu is best-placed to step up but he needs a yusho: Tochioshin needs to prove that January was no fluke: Mitakeumi needs double digits to prove he hasn’t stalled: Goeido needs to prove he’s still got it: and then there’s Ichojo. Those might be the new “big five” and March could be a crucial basho for the sport.
Goeido is not the future of the sport. He has shown over the past 8 tournaments that he cannot turn in the performances needed to be a Yokozuna. He barely even got a kachi kochi last time.
That worried me. I had hoped he would compete for a yusho but he was nowhere in sight.
Unless he was injured, Goeido should have been in it last time.
The grand sumo breakdown guys are pretty funny. I enjoy their “commercial” breaks