ScreechingOwl

It's officially listed on the Kyokai page now: Endo has withdrawn on day 7, Tochinoshin gets the freebie.

I don't begrudge Sharan making money. I just wish it was still with sumo. Health is such a tricky thing for athletes.

My daughter, KikiCookie, and I are looking forward to playing. Thank you for all your hard work, Angel.

Complete admiration for Osunaarashi's career. A teenage weightlifter in Egypt decides he wants to become a sumo wrestler: that sounds like the plot for a situation comedy. Only Osunaarashi made it happen: he visited Japan, got accepted by a heya, and rocketed up the ranks with a record of 42-6-1 before he entered juryo. (Not counting his Mae-zumo results.) He won yusho in Jonokuchi, Makushita, and Juryo (although the Juryo yusho was obtained after he reentered the rank due to injury). He had one of the best upper bodies in sumo. His style wasn't particularly fluid at the tachi-ai, although I'm sure that would have continued to improve over the course of his career; however he was strong and fought like a lion. Unfortunately, contesting all matches to the bitter end often leads to injury, and so it was for Osunaarashi. His most noteworthy result was either Nagoya 2014, where he won 2 kinboshi and finished 7-8 at M3w, or Aki 2015 where he went kk at M2e (four of the 7 losses were to ozeki, one to a yokozuna). That's still a higher rank than Endo has ever gone kk from, for point of reference. His most admirable result, however, may have been in his last full basho, Nagoya 2017, where at 13Je and facing demotion to the unpaid ranks, a significantly injured Osunaarashi fought to a 9-6 record. I heard one of his early press conferences, where he answered much of the foreign press in English. He was was well spoken and witty. I wish him good luck in his post sumo career.

It's nice to see that sumo is cleaning up its act. Oosunaarashi, a juryo rikishi, gets in a minor accident and lies about who is driving and as a result he is forced to retire. Shikimori Inosuke, the head gyoji sexually assaults a minor and he is given a three basho suspension. Oh, and Inosuke almost certainly lied about it as well, conveniently claiming that "I don't remember a thing - I was drunk." And I'm sure the part about "I am not interested in men" is a lie as well, because men who aren't interested in men don't sexually assault them when they become drunk. Good to see that sumo has its priorities straight. Again. This sport is never truly going to be cleaned up as long as the oyakata run things.

Tochinoshin looked very nervous before the bout and in his false start, but came through with very solid sumo. He has a real path to the yusho now. Kakuryu and Asanoyama needlessly pulled against respective opponents they could have beaten going forward and paid the price for very lazy sumo.

Not counting his kyujo bouts, Kisenosato has faced 19 maegashira rikishi during his time as yokozuna. He's won 9 of the bouts and lost 10, a "winning" percentage of 47%. Let the kinboshi fly!

Thank you for all your efforts, Angel. Let's see how upside down Hatsu is....

1-5 Pandaazuma (There's a reason he's the unanimous choice so far; does anyone other than Gurowake even pose a real threat?) 6-10 Norizo (Anyone who's so good that a game is named after him is always a threat) 11-20 Flohru (One of the nicest gamers is also one of the best) 21-40 Andoreasu (could easily finish in the top 5 in 2018) 41-80 KikoCookie (intai propelled by university could be looming, but she's still my daughter) 81-120 Itachi (lots of potential stars in the category) 121-200 Kaiaikakaiko (Try saying that three times fast....) 201-end Hana-ichi (Best comments on Bench thread, bar none)

Doreen has done so much to increase Westerners understanding of the history and culture of sumo. I always enjoyed the days she was on the NHK broadcast and appreciate all the interesting information she gave which enriched my appreciation for the sport. The honour is well deserved.

1. A2. X3. A4. X5. A6. B7. B8. A9. B10. A11. B12. A13. B14. A15. B16. A17. B18. A19. A20. A21. B ScreechingOwl

You know you are watching far too much sumo when you can actually identify the rikishi just from a small (well, comparatively small) portion of his chest. It took me about three years just to recognize some of these guys from their face....

A dozen years filled with greatness: that rivals a real sumo career. This earth-shattering intai gives us all a chance to reflect on how intelligent and analytical Randomitsuki is as well as what a genuinely nice guy he is. I hope retirement is as fulfilling as the games once were and that we get to enjoy his company on Sumo Forum for years to come.

The notion that Goeido has started a yokozuna run is ludicrous. Even if Goeido were to win by zensho yusho in Kyusho he wouldn't be promoted to yokozuna. Goeido's performance in Aki was awful - he resorted to henka at least twice, often won by back peddling and pulling down his opponent, and blew a two win lead (three wins ahead of Harujafuji) with only four matches to go. Goeido defeated zero yokozuna and zero ozeki. Eleven wins is almost always meaningless for yokozuna promotion - and it's double meaningless in this case. (Well, it's probably impossible conceptually for anything to be double meaningless. But if it were possible, this would be it.)