Toyonoshima’s Gold Star was move of the tournament so far. Harumafuji started with a nodo-wa then aggressively shoved Toyonoshima to the edge…but in an instant he had over committed and Toyonoshima deftly spun around, sending the yokozuna flying into the second row. My words don’t do it justice. It was a truly astonishing turn of events. Thanks to Jason for the video.
Gold Star for Tochinoshin! Harumafuji has now given up two this tournament…granted they’re to LEGIT wrestlers, Ichinojo and Tochinoshin…but he still needs to get these wins if he’s to get another yusho. He’s a yokozuna so he doesn’t get the luxury of Stay-Puft marshmallow pushovers.
Hakuho stands alone at the top of the leaderboard. He’s plainly invincible. A few days ago, against Takayasu, he seemed bored – basically inviting the hapless maegashira to try something, anything to take him down. Perhaps afraid of making Hakuho angry, Takayasu just landed a couple limp-wristed slaps to his face before Hakuho finally pulled him down. The next day, against Tamawashi, Hakuho was able to quickly get a right-handed belt grip and he threw the komusubi across the ring. Today, more of the same. He met Toyonoshima with a strong tachiai and then quickly forced him out behind what must be a killer nodo-wa throat grab. Tomorrow, he faces Aoiyama. Someone he’s never lost to in 10 bouts. Also someone who’s looked out-of-sorts for most of this tournament….seems perfect (almost poetic) setup for an upset.
Harumafuji’s loss to Tochinoshin effectively takes him out of contention. After each of his last two bouts, he’s been flexing his right arm in pain. Seems his elbow may be giving him issues and I won’t be surprised if he goes kyujo tomorrow. Meanwhile, the ozeki have been worthless. Goeido went down again today against Aoiyama. I was very disappointed with Kotoshogiku the other day, not being able to just push Ichinojo over the bales. It seemed the Mongolian was inviting him to try a yorikiri win but just leaned on him and then walked him out the other side. Ozeki need to be able to contend for championships. It looks like at this point next year, certainly by summer 2016, there will be a raft of new Ozeki.
Terunofuji (potentially one of the ozeki-in-waiting) and Aminishiki have been providing great story lines with their undefeated runs. Unfortunately, both lost today, several days before we could really start talking about yusho contention. Meanwhile, Osunaarashi and Gagamaru have been looking great among the lower maegashira. Osunaarashi’s been finding different ways to win, mostly on the belt instead of his forceful slaps. It’s been refreshing.
Terunofuji is Ter-ring it up. 7-0 against some impressive competition. Today’s bout against Tochinoshin was excellent sumo. Both wrestlers quickly got solid, two-handed belt grips. Against Ichinojo, Tochinoshin is usually able to power through and win these bouts. But Terunofuji was no pushover. The sekiwake was able to gradually move Tochinoshin backwards and over the straw bales.
Tied with Terunofuji are Hakuho and Aminishiki. Aminishiki’s amazing start is especially impressive in the way that he’s been able to win with a different technique each match. It’s been several tournaments since the “technique prize” was awarded so it will be great to see him get it.
All of the yokozuna and ozeki won. Hakuho had a quick, impressive win over Ichinojo. Hakuho truly is on his own level of this sport. Yesterday, Harumafuji had no response for his compatriot’s size but Hakuho got an Kisenosato advanced to 2-2 by getting a good two-handed belt grip and using that leverage to pick up Takarafuji and putting him over the edge. Likewise, Harumafuji dispatched Sadanoumi in a second with a quick left-handed belt grip and throw.
Goeido got an easy win over Tochiozan. It seemed that as Tochiozan retreated after the tachiai, he just accidentally stepped out. Kotoshogiku moved to 4-0 with his win over Myogiryu and Kisenosato moved back to a .500 record with his win over Takarafuji.
Terunofuji is on fire. In an exciting, energetic match, he got the oshidashi force out victory over the winless Takekaze. Endo got an impressive win against Aoiyama to move to 3-1. Aoiyama had a knee brace on his left knee so when Endo went low, he didn’t have much chance to counter. All of my other faves in the lower ranks won, and Osunaarashi, Ikioi, and Gagamaru all stand at 2-2.
Again, thank you to Jason and Kintamayama for the videos.