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Ishiura is also staying in Makuuchi. This means Hakuho has the chance to have his personal students Ishiura and Enho accompany him for the Yokozuna Ring entrance. 

Mitakeumi keeps his sanyaku slot, albeit barely, to stay in the junior sanyaku ranks for a 14th tournament in a row. Interesting feat. Goeido takes the top Ozeki spot from Takayasu. Abi has struggled among the top ranks the last time he was there, I hope for him to show improvement. 

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As a little bonus, I found this on the Sumoforum... Enho on the left, Ishiura on the right. They are both students of Hakuho's and will accompany him when he does his Yokozuna entrance at the beginning of the Makuuchi bouts during the May tournament. 

201905010000572-w1300_0.jpg

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9 hours ago, DangerMark said:

Does this mean Hakuho actually plans to wrestle? I don't know the details, but I'm not sure that's actually a good idea. There's a whole list of sumo wrestlers who have been stupid about injuries.

He still has a little time to decide, but I can see him at least starting. He seems to be very eager to participate in the first tournament of the new empirial era. I find it highly likely that he will drop out, though. 

The way of dealing with injury in sumo is quite like it used to be in Pro Wrestling, with pretty much everyone being banged up like crazy and working through most of the bigger injuries.

Still, Hakuho has done pretty well in preserving himself and his body over the last few years and without the next big player on the horizon he seems so much better than anyone else when he is remotely healthy. We will see in a week, when all the wrestlers will have announced their participation / withdrawal respectively. 

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Hakuho is out of the basho. He went with Doctor's advice. Since the great Yokozuna hasn't trained at all, it was a logical choice. What is of course unfortunate for the White Phoenix personally opens up a lot of possibilities for the Yusho race. No news on other kyujo so far. 

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With Hakuho out, the Yusho race seems wide open. Some of the first alledged favourites however already got their first Ls: Ichinojo and Takayasu both lost their opening bouts to assumed lesser opponents, both in somewhat disheartening fashion to Daeisho and Kotoshogiku respectively. 

Kakuryu, Goeido and Takakeisho plowed through Mitakeumi, Hokotufuji and Endo in pretty convincing fashion. My personal joyous moment of the day however... 

 

 

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So true... 

Today in a nutshell: Kakuryu, Takakeisho and Tochinoshin are looking impressive early on. Takayasu doesn't, but gets a first win. Goeido might be at his very best during the last few Bashos, and it showed again today when he took a very game Aoiyama to school to get his second win. 

Enho put up a good fight, but couldn't get through with a headlock throw. Many entertaining slapfests, Mitakeumi v Tamawashi being my match of the day. 

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Well, out of the top guys Kakuryu and Tochinoshin remain undefeated. Takayasu dropped a second bout today, probably already dashing his hope for that first Yusho already. Takakeisho and Goeido assured their fellow Ozeki that it wasn't the day of the high rankers. 

Tochinoshin outpowered Okinoumi in a tough bout. Kakuryu spiked himself on his head, but it got him a narrow win against Kotoshogiku. As always when Hakuho isn't around, it seems as if there are no clear cut favourites. 

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Tochinoshin is back to looking like an unstoppable destroyer of worlds. Must be that purple mawashi. 

Gutted to hear about Takakeisho: needs three weeks of treatment for an injury in the match against Mitakeumi.

Speaking of Mitakeumi, that was indeed a fun match against Tamawashi; although Enho looks so much fun when I get to see him.

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Takakeisho's injury is indeed tragic. I really hope taking time off will help him getting healthy and be back to his usual self. 

Not even going to lie, Takayasu is a huge disappointment this Basho. He looks like his head is not into it. 

Tochinoshin looks fantastic. He still has to face the Ozekis and the Yokozuna, but atm this should mean almost guaranteed 2 out of 3 with only Kakuryu looking convincing. 

And just because...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3L-30GRF_8E

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10 hours ago, Lamp, broken circa 1988 said:

Because Japan, Takakeisho is back today against Aoiyama. On the plus side, Aoiyama has never beaten Takakeisho. On the minus side, Fighting Aoiyama With A Leg Injury seems like an exceedingly bad time.

To be fair, Aoiyama has looked one legged a lot of the time aswell. Still not convinced it's a good move by Takakeisho. We will see if he can do anything. 

It looks like a two horses race, with both Kakuryu and Tochinoshin flawless after seven days. Tochinoshin really wants that Ozeki rank back. Enho lost today in a spetacular Battle of tiny dudes against Terutsuyoshi. This is remarkable since it's his second loss against a relatively small opponent, while he beat the dudes virtually twice his size. 

Mitakeumi is looking strong so far. He really likes sanyaku. Ichinojo looks a little hopeless right now. He has rallied in second weeks in the past, but the loss of form is somewhat staggering.

EDIT: As of day 8, Ichinojo has announced his withdrawal from the basho, citing an arm-injury. This means that two free sanyaku ranks are very likely, since it will cause Ichinojo to drop back into Maegashira ranks. Kaisei also dropped out, arm-injury aswell. If he doesn't reappear during the tournament, he will drop to 3-12, which means a ranking very far down the banzuke in the next tournament. 

Edited by ReiseReise
Further kyujo announcements
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I've been loving the Enho run, but seeing him across the ring from somebody like Tochiozan reminds me that there's a limit to all this.

On one hand, Kakuryu and Tochinoshin seem to be on a collision course and I'm all for it. Speed vs. power! On the other hand, they could both goof this up against higher competition in the last five days. Tochinoshin nosedived at the end of the last basho and Kakuryu is a lifelong master of it (facing Hakuho on one of the last two days that many times sure doesn't help). If Goeido or Takayasu are still in play on the last day, I won't be shocked.

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Tochinoshin is a). Back in Purple, and b). A Destroyer of Worlds, and I am on board with both of these things. How long has Mitakeumi been in that orange? I'm sure he started the tournament wearing his usual deep red.

Takayasu never seems to screw it up at the end, mostly because he's already screwed it up at the beginning. 

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ALMOST everyone. Asanoyama the sole leader with 10-1. Defininetly the Underdog, but he just might be able to dodge the high rankers. Might get junior sanyaku opponents during the final days. 

Takayasu worries me. He looks to have lost a step or five lately. 

Both Tochinoshin and Kakuryu got overwhelmed. Tochinoshin looked very tense with the carrot of a tenth win dangling in front of him. 

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Uuuuffff... Tochinoshin got robbed today. He should have gotten win number ten and with that back to Ozeki. Everyone knew, even his opponent, man in the lead Asanoyama. Everyone but the judges. There is no way this call should have gone like that. 

Takayasu remembered how good he usually is and manhandled Kakuryu in a way I didn't think was possible. This means Asanoyama (11-2) will stay in contention until the final day at least. Kakuryu is in second with a 10-3 score, followed by Goeido, Tochinoshin, Tamawashi and Meisei (all 9-4). Goeido meets Asanoyama with a shot at pushing the door white open, Tochinoshin can break said door of the hinges if he defeats Kakuryu tomorrow. This outcome would put at least three rikishi at 10-4 while keeping Asanoyama at 11-3.

Enho could have gotten hurt. I really hope it didn't happen, but looked like a harmstring injury. Poor guy also could have gotten a dead-Body-rule call or at least a redo... 

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Naw, I'm gonna keep it. And Toch is going to be 400 pounds of fury tomorrow. Kakuryu won't even know what hit him.

I don't care for Trump, unless ge flies me to Tokyo, gives me a nice chunk of his money and his seat. I'm no American, though, and it's kind of nice he will visit the basho as a foreign head of state. 

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The Tochinoshin vs. Asanoyama call was shocking, yet somehow not the worst piece of officiating in this tournament. 

2 hours ago, ReiseReise said:

Poor guy also could have gotten a dead-Body-rule call or at least a redo... 

He was never going to be ready for a rematch, and I'm pretty sure I've only ever seen the Dead Body Rule ever involved on people who have come down below the plane of the dohyo. I'm gutted for him, though. Hope it's not serious, but that if it even might be serious that he stays out.

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Asanoyama won his hard fought match against Goeido! Today also saw Tochinoshin beating Kakuryu via henka, the Georgian regains ozekihood. Asanoyama wins his first Yusho and will get the trophy tomorrow. 

Enho will very likely Makekoshi now, with a last shot tomorrow, but also an injury and a loss of form. Sad! 

 

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Thanks @DangerMark,  I'm always disastrous at getting dead Body right and I think you did a good job at setting stuff straight. Much appreciated! 

Donald Trump paid his visit today, watching three bouts and handling out an impressive new trophy called President Cup. The president did a good job on Asanoyama's name pronounciation and showed good and respectful demeanor. 

Asanoyama could not celebrate the Yusho with a 13th win. He won't be too sad with this in light of the tournament result. His performance is very likely to earn him a career high Komusubi rank, which means he will face the top dogs in Nagoya.

Mitakeumi, who was too much for the tournament winner today, will be a Sekiwake in July after a 9-6 score, so both will meet again.

Enho sadly couldn't secure Kachikoshi. Hampered by an injury during the last three days he was unable to turn another galant effort into the much needed W. Grumpiest man alive Shohozan was too much for him in the end, getting his own much needed eight victory. 

The results are quite likely to give us Tamawashi as the second Sekiwake and Abi as a Komusubi (which I like a lot!). Tochinoshin already got his needed tenth win for his Re-promotion yesterday, he will join the other three Ozeki, with the unfortunate Takakeisho being the only one having to battle kadoban. 

Tokushoryu, Ishiura and Chiyoshoma are the clear choices to be relegated. Kaisei should be too high up the charts, but will definetly experience a bad drop. From the Juryo division, I expect Takagenji, Toyonoshima and Kotoyuki to make it up into Makuuchi. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Enho stayed up at Maegashira 14.

As my esteemed colleague @ReiseReise predicted, Tamawashi made Sekiwake and Abi made Komisubi. He didn't predict Ryuden getting the other Komisubi spot; but really it was between him and Asanoyama. Fun piece of trivia, Abi and Ryuden also made their Makuuchi debuts in the same tournament. DESTINED RIVALS?!

Chiyonokuni is down to Makushita, sad face.

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