Our favorite Musashigawa rikishi opened the new year with a most welcome win over Tochinoshima, to open the basho 1-0. Wakaichiro has been battling a number of physical problems around his right kneed and shoulder, and his performance has suffered the past 2 tournaments. In his day 1 match he looked stronger, more confident and more aggressive than ever. His sumo was smooth, efficient and powerful, and we hope it’s the shape of things to come.
Impressive tachiai. He immediately had Tochinoshima moving backwards and it was over.
Dang, there’s a lot of positive things here! He’s a lot calmer, his shiko has his legs going higher before the match, and then there’s his performance in the match itself. If Wakaichiro does his sumo this well during the entire tournament, he’ll do very well.