A good read on the state of sumo and possible improvements for the health and safety of wrestlers during training and championships. The limited visibility of foreign fans is also discussed. I...
A good read on the state of sumo and possible improvements for the health and safety of wrestlers during training and championships. The limited visibility of foreign fans is also discussed.
I can't wait for the tournament to start next weekend, there are so many interesting stories to come in this tournament: will Kirishima become Yokozuna? Will Kotonowaka reach Ozeki. Will my little protege Atamifuji maintain or improve his M1 rank? Onosato' debut in the top division will be interesting. Same goes with the return of Hakuoho and much more!
I have hope for Kirishima, but I doubt he'll make the top rank this basho. Kotonowaka would need 13 wins to make Ozeki, something he's never achieved and would likely be a basho winning record...
I can't wait for the tournament to start next weekend, there are so many interesting stories to come in this tournament: will Kirishima become Yokozuna? Will Kotonowaka reach Ozeki. Will my little protege Atamifuji maintain or improve his M1 rank? Onosato' debut in the top division will be interesting. Same goes with the return of Hakuoho and much more!
I have hope for Kirishima, but I doubt he'll make the top rank this basho.
Kotonowaka would need 13 wins to make Ozeki, something he's never achieved and would likely be a basho winning record these days. I do think he'll make Ozeki, but probably not this tournament. I think he'll get another 11-4, which will line him up for an 11-4 in March and Ozeki promotion then.
Atamifuji is exciting and there's been one hell of a rise of late, but M1 means he is going to get put through the sanyaku meat grinder which very few newly minted M1s ever survive. Quick query shows that since 2000, only nine M1s survive the rank and move up or keep M1 by squeaking a kachi-koshi in.
Always like watching top division debut-ers so I'll be keeping a close eye on Onosato.
I'm sure Hakuoho will do well at the top of Makushita and be back in the paid ranks next basho if he cleans house, but the top of Makushita and bottom of Juryo are very competitive since there's a set number of spots in Juryo and a lot of people that do not want to lose their paycheck. Kayo and Wakatakakage are both in the Ms1 spots, the latter with top division experience and yusho at Sekiwake coming back from injury and the former being a fast riser with a yokozuna coach and a wrecking ball body. Plenty of other Makushita, both young up-and-comers and older more experienced rikishi, standing in the way. I wouldn't be surprised if Hakuoho just misses the promotion cutoff to Juryo.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply! The facts that you are mentioning are eye opening and I still have faith with Atamifuji :) I don't think I've seen Kayo fight yet, but since you're mentioning...
Thank you for the thoughtful reply! The facts that you are mentioning are eye opening and I still have faith with Atamifuji :)
I don't think I've seen Kayo fight yet, but since you're mentioning him, I'll be watching ! However, I am afraid with Wakatakakage's performance... he didn't look fully healed last basho and this bout (against Kayo) proves it.
You're welcome. Make no mistake, I'm rooting for Atamifuji and I love me an underdog that defeats expectations, history just says he's unlikely to do so. As is typical in sumo Wakatakakage...
You're welcome. Make no mistake, I'm rooting for Atamifuji and I love me an underdog that defeats expectations, history just says he's unlikely to do so.
As is typical in sumo Wakatakakage probably isn't fully healed as they never really are, but that bout had bad strategy on Waka's part. Opening face slaps rarely work on wrecking balls/pushers, their whole thing is to get into you and win through sheer force. Slaps work in two ways, either they distract (which doesn't work against pushers since they know they're going to be in the stink of it) or they need to be strong enough to physically move the other person (which again, doesn't work against the heavyweights). Waka should have hit and shifted for the belt grip, but he hit and then took the tachiai full on putting him in a position where he didn't move Kayo, didn't distract Kayo, and now doesn't have a strong initial charge as Waka had to stay put to aim the slap.
He's honestly lucky he was against Kayo and not the much faster Takakeisho as the slap would have still connected, but Taka's little-yet-ridiculously-strong T-rex arms would have put Waka about three rows into the stands before he knew what was happening. Hopefully Waka re-learned a lesson he should have long since taken to heart.
Because... uhh... just because, okay! You gotta wait!
Basho over, putting new response under the spoiler just in case you haven't watched it yet: Sumo Spoilers Kirishima put up a great fight, but it turned out as predicted. Unfortunately resets any...
Basho over, putting new response under the spoiler just in case you haven't watched it yet:
Sumo Spoilers
Kirishima put up a great fight, but it turned out as predicted. Unfortunately resets any yokozuna run he had going.
Kotonowaka defied my expectations and put up a damn good fight. Terunofuji did what was expected of him, but Kotonawaka gets the respect for going toe-to-tow twice and has definitely earned his promotion to Ozeki and new shinkona Kotozakura after his grandfather. I hope he lives up to the name and can definitely see a rope in his future if he keeps up his performance like this basho.
Atamifuji did as expected unfortunately, got chewed up and spit out by the sanyaku with his only win up there being against Daieisho. Powerful, but has much to learn.
Onosato did quite well and the JSA apparently thought enough of him to heavily promote him in the second half to put him up against sekiwake, ozeki, and Terunofuji. He lost against all of them, which is to be expected, but still had a great showing at 11-4.
Hakuoho did great in Makushita at 6-1 and I'd be surprised if he's not in Juryo next basho as the bottom of Juryo did very poorly and he and Wakatakage did quite well. Kayo was a disappointment, but Hakuoho, Wakatakage, and probably Tsushimanada will be getting paychecks again. They may even reach as far down as Ms8 and bring Onokatsu up to Juryo.
Mirror, for those hit by the paywall:
https://archive.is/rhJkW
A good read on the state of sumo and possible improvements for the health and safety of wrestlers during training and championships. The limited visibility of foreign fans is also discussed.
I can't wait for the tournament to start next weekend, there are so many interesting stories to come in this tournament: will Kirishima become Yokozuna? Will Kotonowaka reach Ozeki. Will my little protege Atamifuji maintain or improve his M1 rank? Onosato' debut in the top division will be interesting. Same goes with the return of Hakuoho and much more!
I have hope for Kirishima, but I doubt he'll make the top rank this basho.
Kotonowaka would need 13 wins to make Ozeki, something he's never achieved and would likely be a basho winning record these days. I do think he'll make Ozeki, but probably not this tournament. I think he'll get another 11-4, which will line him up for an 11-4 in March and Ozeki promotion then.
Atamifuji is exciting and there's been one hell of a rise of late, but M1 means he is going to get put through the sanyaku meat grinder which very few newly minted M1s ever survive. Quick query shows that since 2000, only nine M1s survive the rank and move up or keep M1 by squeaking a kachi-koshi in.
Always like watching top division debut-ers so I'll be keeping a close eye on Onosato.
I'm sure Hakuoho will do well at the top of Makushita and be back in the paid ranks next basho if he cleans house, but the top of Makushita and bottom of Juryo are very competitive since there's a set number of spots in Juryo and a lot of people that do not want to lose their paycheck. Kayo and Wakatakakage are both in the Ms1 spots, the latter with top division experience and yusho at Sekiwake coming back from injury and the former being a fast riser with a yokozuna coach and a wrecking ball body. Plenty of other Makushita, both young up-and-comers and older more experienced rikishi, standing in the way. I wouldn't be surprised if Hakuoho just misses the promotion cutoff to Juryo.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply! The facts that you are mentioning are eye opening and I still have faith with Atamifuji :)
I don't think I've seen Kayo fight yet, but since you're mentioning him, I'll be watching ! However, I am afraid with Wakatakakage's performance... he didn't look fully healed last basho and this bout (against Kayo) proves it.
Anyway, why can't we start the basho now? :)
You're welcome. Make no mistake, I'm rooting for Atamifuji and I love me an underdog that defeats expectations, history just says he's unlikely to do so.
As is typical in sumo Wakatakakage probably isn't fully healed as they never really are, but that bout had bad strategy on Waka's part. Opening face slaps rarely work on wrecking balls/pushers, their whole thing is to get into you and win through sheer force. Slaps work in two ways, either they distract (which doesn't work against pushers since they know they're going to be in the stink of it) or they need to be strong enough to physically move the other person (which again, doesn't work against the heavyweights). Waka should have hit and shifted for the belt grip, but he hit and then took the tachiai full on putting him in a position where he didn't move Kayo, didn't distract Kayo, and now doesn't have a strong initial charge as Waka had to stay put to aim the slap.
He's honestly lucky he was against Kayo and not the much faster Takakeisho as the slap would have still connected, but Taka's little-yet-ridiculously-strong T-rex arms would have put Waka about three rows into the stands before he knew what was happening. Hopefully Waka re-learned a lesson he should have long since taken to heart.
Because... uhh... just because, okay! You gotta wait!
Basho over, putting new response under the spoiler just in case you haven't watched it yet:
Sumo Spoilers