As a reminder, these were the Day 9 matchups:
Ikarigata tossed down his Sandanme opponent with a sukuinage. Yago defeated Hinataryu in a messy bout that ended with both rikishi landing in a heap after trying to throw each other, and required a mono-ii to confirm that Hinataryu landed first. Gyotoku is a beast; he pushed out Seihakuho to extend his career record to 11-1. Asahakuryu grabbed Kamito’s belt at the tachiai, and it was an easy yorikiri win from there.
The semifinal bouts will take place on Day 11, with the winners meeting on Day 13 for all the marbles. We have:
- Asahakuryu vs. Gyotoku
- Yago vs. Ikarigata
The first bout matches two strong prospects, one who is all but certain to make his sekitori debut in September and another who seems destined to follow suit soon. The second matches an 8-year veteran who debuted at Ms15TD and reached the top division before tumbling down the banzuke through a combination of underperformance and injury against a Sandanme tsukedashi rikishi fighting in only his fourth career basho, who also happens to be Fujinokawa’s brother.
In the promotion zone, both Ms1 wrestlers, prospect Kyokukaiyu and former Ozeki Asanoyama, won with ease today to go to 3-2, leaving each one win away from promotion. Ms2e Ishizaki (4-1) clinched an all-important kachi-koshi and should finally make his Juryo debut after 3 near misses. Ms3e Asahakuryu (5-0) is all but certain to go up, and former maegashira Ms3w Kitanowaka (4-1) is also in good shape for promotion. Ms2w Mudoho (2-3) must win out and hope for favorable results elsewhere, while everyone else is either mathematically or realistically out of the running. That’s five likely promotion cases; will there be room in Juryo for everyone? With six days to go, it’s too early to tell, though injury victim Nabatame will be going down for certain, Mitoryu looks sure to join him even if he is able to re-enter the basho, Otsuji must win out, Shimanoumi and Daiamami need more wins than losses the rest of the way, and several others still have work to do.
Oh, and in sad news, Enho did hurt himself in his loss to Narutaki and had to withdraw with what appears to be a knee injury. No word on its severity or prognosis, but he’ll drop down to the middle of the third division for September, delaying any possibility of a sekitori return.
There is no relevant action tomorrow, so the next update should be on Day 11.
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As Nishinoryu has several 5-2s in his Ms account, it’s not totally unrealistic for him to reach that result again. And as the trend in juryo goes to five demotions, it then would take only one more sekitori with a weak end of the basho (Shiden, Myanokaze again?) to rise his hopes.
Two ifs, but still not unthinkable…
Miyanokaze had been bursting with stubborn energy in most of his bouts. I trust him three more wins to be safe.
But I’ve got strong impression of Nishinoryu, too. Let‘s see how long it takes for him to fight his way through.
He’s up in juryo against Shiden tomorrow, not impossible for him get promoted if he wins that and his final bout.
That’s a heartbreaker for Enho. It’s going to be a slog, though. He’s hopefully prepared for it…if the injury isn’t too bad. There is a lot of young talent. Glad to see Asanoyama might make it back.
With the 5 probable promotions pending, the 5 Juryo underperformers you named in the bottom third are likely to be the ones swapped out. I don’t see them saving their sekitori status — too much of an overly optimistic situation for them… Reality will bite them hard.