Four rounds of third-division bouts have been completed, and we are left with 7 men with 4-0 records. The quarterfinals will take place on day 9, with the highest-ranked undefeated Sandanme rikishi filling out the bracket. Here are the matchups:
Ohata has spent 11 years bouncing back and forth between Makushita and Sandanme, with a career-high rank of Ms31. He did beat Ieshima in their one prior meeting in Sandanme in July of last year. Daiyusho and Ryusho both hail from the Oitekaze beya, which is why they’re fighting lower-ranked opponents rather than each other. Daiyusho is fighting at his highest rank in an injury-marred seven-year career, while Ryusho debuted at Ms60TD in July and has a 14-4 career record. Their opponents, Hokutenkai and Shiroma, are both from Onoe beya, but the winners of these two bouts should be in opposite halves of the bracket for the semifinals. Hokutenkai has an interesting backstory—he is Takanoiwa’s nephew. Shiroma started two years ago as a hot prospect, with consecutive yusho in Jonokuchi and Jonidan, but has struggled in the upper half of Makushita.
And then we have the bout between the presumptive favorites. Kazuma obliterated fellow Ms60 tsukedashi Fukuzaki and is looking like an absolute beast. Former sekitori Tochimusashi used his experience to outmaneuver Seihakuho. Kazuma should have the power edge in this matchup, but those of us who remember Tochimusashi know that he will do whatever it takes to win, so his opponent better be on his toes tomorrow.
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Somehow it feels like Kazuma has already a couple of more wins than just 4. Might be his intensity in presence.
A question to the promotion range: as Endo has retired, counts Inami as promotable instead.
I think we have recent examples where “the invisible line” stayed between 5w and 6e even though there were absences in Ms1-Ms5. But if he goes 6-1 and they really need someone to promote, maybe?
I found that the last rikishi who has been promoted from that rank was Enho! And he had scored a whopping 4-3!
Back in 19996 a 6-1 jumped to juryo, but since then they all (four) landed at Ms1e.
And note that 6-1 Ms5w Goshima got promoted last time at the expense of 4-3 Ms2e Takakento, while 6-1 Ms6e Shiden in 2023 wasn’t promoted even though 4-3 Ms3e Tokihayate was.
Similar to the latter case, Ms6w Akua got stuck in juryo after March this year while Ms3w Mudoho 4-3 went up. That’s actually also an example for what you talked about further up – two of the guys ahead of Akua were 0-0-7, so he was within the top 10 active rikishi. Didn’t help him.
However, IIRC from that stuff we hashed out on the forum last year, there hasn’t been any case yet where there were still more numerically demotable juryo rikishi (relative to a Ms6 guy) after all top 5 KKs already found a spot.
I assume it makes no difference whether someone who’s 0-0-7 retired or not…
Hokutofuji’s retirement (albeit during the ongoing basho) didn’t seem to help Kyokukaiyu’s case from inside the top 5 back in May, we can say that much.
It’s unlikely to happen, but we could be in for an (in ranking terms) very odd “upper half” 5-0 match if both Onoe guys win. Even moreso if Tochimusashi beats Kazuma.
Check out Kyushu 2019. I haven’t dug into the results but it’s a fun bout query: https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Query_bout.aspx?show_form=0&year=2000-now&rank1=ms1-ms15&wins1=5&losses1=0&winsopt1=1&lossesopt1=1&rank2=ms40-ms60&wins2=5&losses2=0&winsopt2=1&lossesopt2=1
I have some trouble with this NHK ONE. Often, the video blinks like crazy and displays an error code, 2002000007 I think. Sometimes, it plays Ok, all of those I was also on VPN. But I actually understood that VPN was not required. Am I the only one ??
Those blinking videos and images don’t work. There should be other videos that will work if you scroll. They’re hidden by a button that says, “続き読む”. Click that and the hidden videos should show up.
Thanks, yes they are working fine. Its just that I prefer to watch the live stream when time allows, and thats the one often failing. Today, it worked on 2nd attempt. I hope this is initial troubles which will be fixed by NHK technicians. Luckily, ABEMA is also at hand although I prefer NHK with more camera angles and English language guys.