There were a couple of sumo events over the weekend. First of all, there was a 相撲トーナメント, sponsored by Fuji TV, involving many of the top wrestlers in an elimination-style tournament. The final bout featured Takayasu vs. Yoshikaze with Takayasu victorious by yorikiri (below).
Hakuho and Kakuryu were unsurprisingly eliminated in their first round bouts. Injuries are still hampering our champions and are a major concern going into March. But Yoshikaze was the surprise of the tournament, following up a disappointing Hatsubasho by channeling the kyujo Tochinoshin, and lifting Shohozan* before beating Abi in the semi-final.
I had hoped to provide a bigger update on injury status for wrestlers like Chiyonokuni, Arawashi, and Kotoyuki but one of the only tweets I could find was of Chiyonokuni in what appears to be a hospital room. Since none of them appeared in the Fuji TV tournament, let’s keep our fingers crossed that they’re taking it easy and will be ready to go in March!
*Edit: I originally said Tochiozan but I can’t read kanji well this early in the morning.
Well, but Tochiozan have his wedding reception..
The cruise would be nice for a honeymoon. ;)
I watched a lot of it last night, it was weird to see Kise in a suit but still with his chonmage.
And they kept using the flying spaghetti monster kanji for his new oyakata name, Araiso, 荒. It was messing with my search for news on Arawashi. I’m like, “Ooo, found something! Ahh, nope.”
That brings up a point, when does his name officially change? The commentators kept saying “Kisenosato” but I have no idea what context they were using it in.
Good question. In the newspaper articles that I’ve read, they’re using 元 in front of his name as “ex-” or “former”. I’ve not heard how he’s referenced in live interviews. I would presume it would be Araiso oyakata already.
Yoshikaze should be ranked M12, and if this version shows up in Osaka, he could be a terror that far down the banzuke.
It would be wonderful.
Do you know if Herouth is doing a recap of the Hakuho Cup this year? I watched a little bit of it last night and read the article from last year, it was so helpful!
If I find enough material.
Can someone post a link to a video of this tournament? Let’s see how much Yoshikaze has left in the tank…..
RalphL i saw a couple of feeds on twitter – and boy oh boy our berserker’s back! his power lift was amazing! hope this Yoshikaze hangs around for March tournament!!!! hoping he can lead by example as senpai to both Yago and Tomokaze – so hoping for brilliant tournaments from all 3….
http://www.miomio.tv/watch/cc420864/