A few quick bites of the day 9 action – apologies to fans if their favorite rikishi is skipped due to lack of time. Act 2 is working its magic, as the leaderboard is being shredded by the bout schedule. Kakuryu and Kaisei are still undefeated. At the end of day 9, there are no 1-loss rikishi remaining, and a decent group have fallen out of the 2-loss crowd as well.
With the nearest competitors now 2 losses behind, the next task is to see if Kaisei and Kakuryu can go the distance. At this point, both men would need to pick up 2 losses to re-open the yusho race. While that would be great for fan excitement and TV ratings, it’s a tall order. Kakuryu seems to still be healthy, wily, fast and strong. Kaisei is plain enormous and is no easy man to move, even when he is not ultra-genki. [Kakuryu is matched up against Chiyomaru tomorrow. Since there are five days of basho left after that, and five san’yaku opponents still for Kakuryu to face, it is unlikely we will see Kakuryu vs. Kaisei unless the yusho goes to a playoff or someone goes kyujo. –PinkMawashi]
Highlight Matches
Aminishiki defeats Hidenoumi – Aminishiki picks up a much-needed win, but he sure does look rough. Uncle Sumo is clearly banged up all the time now, but I admire his drive.
Aoiyama defeats Sokokurai – Sokokurai really provided no significant challenge for the Bulgarian Man-Mountain. Aoiyama’s 7-2 (8-1?)
Asanoyama defeats Daiamami – The happy sumotori drops the sole remaining man with one loss. It’s now two wins that separate the leaders from everyone else.
Daishomaru defeats Myogiryu – Daishomaru is not going to give up, he wins on day 9 to keep rooted in the 2 loss group.
Ikioi defeats Kotoyuki – A fight so nice, they did it twice. The shimpan called for a rematch after both men touched down in tandem, and Ikioi blasted Mr 5×5 over and out. Yep, Ikioi is part of that 2 loss crowd!
Yoshikaze defeats Chiyonokuni – Good to see Yoshikaze pick up a win. I would consider Chiyonokuni a possible heir to Yoshikaze’s berserker form in time, and he gave Yoshikaze a solid fight today. Double bonus points today for camera work. As Chiyonokuni drops to the clay, Yoshikaze has a grip on his mawashi knot, and it comes undone. With a palpable sense of urgency, the camera pans to the ceiling before Chiyonokuni can rise from the dohyo.
Abi defeats Okinoumi – Abi showed better form today, he kept his weight from getting too far forward and powered through Okinoumi’s defenses.
Kaisei defeats Ryuden – Again on day 9, there seems to be no stopping Kaisei. He faces Ichinojo on day 10, so it’s time to see how genki the Brazilian actually is.
Arawashi defeats Takarafuji – Arawashi finally gets his first win. Sadly it’s at the expense of Takarafuji picking up his make-koshi.
Tamawashi defeats Endo – Endo needs to come up with a few new battle plans. This match was far too similar to prior bouts with Tamawashi, and it was all Tamawashi.
Ichinojo defeats Takakeisho – Takakeisho looked hurt yesterday and looked more hurt today. Something about the right leg, or perhaps a groin pull. Ichinojo was surprisingly gentle with him once he won.
Tochinoshin defeats Shohozan – Wow, Tochinoshin looks really solid today. Shohozan is struggling now, after a fantastic start.
Kotoshogiku defeats Mitakeumi – Old school Kotoshogiku came from the shadows, with most of his strength but all of his skill today against Mitakeumi, and it was great to see. Mitakeumi is once again fading hard. What will it take for this guy to get double digits in san’yaku?
Chiyomaru defeats Goeido – Big surprise today, and it was the Ozeki who stepped out first by a wide margin in this “fling fest”. Goeido did not look bad today, he just had a mistimed step.
Takayasu defeats Chiyotairyu – Takayasu delivers a mini-henka and rolls Chiyotairyu down. The surprise is that the spherical Chiyotairyu can actually stop before reaching Nagasaki.
Kakuryu defeats Shodai – This bout is one part Kakuryu’s reactive sumo in spades, one part “Dancing with the Stars”. As expected, Shodai is high at the tachiai, and Kakuryu plays with him for a few moments before evading Shodai’s charge.
“With a palpable sense of urgency…” you’re killing me Bruce :lol:
Second day in a row Gik’s opponent let him lock up the right arm with that super-high left hand inside grip. Fellas–elbows in, especially on your right! That’s the kryptonite to his super-move. For a second I thought Mitakeumi might get out of it, but alas. The old guy still has his tricks.
That bout looked like: gaburi-gaburi, gaburi-gaburi, turn, gaburi-gaburi, gaburi-gaburi, turn, gabury… oh, sod this for a lark! Boom.
what’s with the lack of time today?
For me it’s that whole income / employment thing compressing my sumo writing time.
So annoyed with myself. The ISP sumo game’s match today was Endo vs. Tamawashi. I felt they were pretty even performance-wise this basho; their recent match history showed that one of them had a distinct advantage. I assumed the table showing their match history was in chronological order but it was actually in reverse chronological order, so I picked the rikishi that had lost their most recent matches.
I don’t think the leg was Takaeisho’s leg was his problem today. It looked like he was knocked silly at the tachi-ai: his head was wobbling around on his neck and he looked like a marionette that had a couple of strings cut. Also note the way that Ichinojo was looking to catch him and stop him falling off the dohyo even as he was shoving him over the bales.
I now know why Kakuryu seldom shows any emotion. That smile is straight from “Mongolian Cannibal Nightmare IV: Yurt of Blood”.
I agree, his head went right into Ichinojo’s chest/shoulder area and Takakeisho looked punch-drunk after that bout. I was worried he was going to keel over on his way off the dohyo. I always thought Ichinojo would be soft and squishy, but maybe there’s some truth to the whole boulder theory…
Very happy that Tamawashi showed his dominance against Endo. In my opinion his sumo should allow him to constantly stay at komusubi-sekiwake ranks. He is always a dangerous rikishi for anyone to face, unpredictable and naturally strong. Sadly sometimes he tends to lose when it is least expected.
Strong Kotoshogiku, it wont be impossible for him to make kachi-koshi.
Chiyomaru! He deserved something like this. Today when he faces Kakuryu he will be very determined and motivated. “I defeated an ozeki the first time I meet one. Let’s do the same with the yokozuna.” This makes their bout worthy to expect.
Very happy with the outcome of Kakuryu’s bout. There is no doubt in me that when the time comes to face the san’yaku he will look completely different. It is understandable that for this 9 days he was trying not to exhaust or re-injure himself and I hope all this will pay off at the end.