Welcome to Tachiai’s coverage of third-division yusho and promotion races. Three rounds of bouts have been completed, and 15 rikishi made it through unscathed. Here’s the yusho bracket:
Normally, the undefeated men would be paired up in rank order on days 7 and 8. However, the top trio hails from Isegahama beya: Toshinofuji (Seihakuho), Arashifuji (Matsui), and Enho. So they will instead face the next three undefeated rikishi. Arashifuji and Enho are the only rikishi in the extended promotion zone (Ms6-Ms15) who can earn automatic Juryo promotion by going 7-0; a sekitori return has been Enho’s long-standing goal for his comeback. Toshinofuji’s opponent, Mineyaiba, is a near-sekitori-caliber rikishi on his own comeback from injury. Arashifuji gets former sekitori Tochimaru, whose unique style is characterized by rapid-fire tsuppari. Enho will fight Haruyama, a 25-year-old prospect whose progress has been stalled in Makushita for the past couple of years.
I think that covers most of the notable names. Our latest impressive Ms60 tsukedashi debutant, Wakanofuji, will round out the round of sixteen by facing Sd11e Tsurubayashi. Come back on Sunday for the next update on the yusho race.
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Kaki is missing in the yusho bracket. Wasn’t he able to deal with the unique style of Tochimaru U mention? Would a 6-1 or even a 5-2 still bring him up to the „joi“?
And in juryo Kazuma is missing from the yusho race. Have U been watching him? Is he just too nervous yet or might he have hit his ceiling already?
Well, Kaki is now 2-2 and looked very ordinary in losing to Wakamiyabi today. If he can regroup, a 5-2 would get him to around Ms10-Ms12.
Not sure what was wrong with Kazuma in the first 3 days, when he seemed to completely lack power. He’s looked more like himself the last couple of days, so we’ll see.
Quite amused by next level Nobehara. Throwing people around with instant uwatedashinage :)
This probably sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I think that the reason Enhō is the only ex-Miyagino rikishi to not change names is that he has an arrangement with Miyagino-oyakata (former yokozuna Asahifuji) that if he makes it back to Jūryō, he’ll be able to obtain the Miyagino kabu upon his retirement.
It’s interesting and not a conspiracy theory at all. It seems rather rational, imho. I just don’t know if Miyagino wants to occupy that kabu for his full sanyo term or if he’s ready to move on to other things. If Enho makes it back, I don’t know if he stays long or retires immediately. There are definitely several possibilities.