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Kasutera

U.S. Sumo Open August 8th!

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http://www.usasumo.com/ussumoopen2015.html

If you're in the LA area in the next two weeks, come check it out! Last week we saw the beginnings of the wrestler who just this month got his first kachikoshi in ozumo, Homarenishiki! What new surprises are in store this year?

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It was a very interesting night of upsets and unexpected results. A lot of mainstays that usually show up were notably absent: Trent Sabo didn't attend in lightweight, Andre Coleman dropped out with an injury from lightweight, no Kena Heffernan in middleweight, nor Kelly Gneiting in middleweight. Two normally dominant Mongolians in their respective weightclasses, Bilgee in middle and Byamba in heavy, were defeated by several opponents, among them the Egyptians who were SUPPOSED to show up last year but didn't.

The prelims were round-robin style with two groups of seven, the best two from each advancing to the semifinals. I had the very first match of the whole tournament, and not only was there a monoii that resulted in a torinaoshi, but then the torinaoshi resulted in a SECOND monoii. Ended up losing that one after the second monoii. My second one was against Boldbaatar, who picked me up off the ground and dropped me so spectacularly they replayed it on the big screen, as they damn well should have. If I'm going to lose, it should be spectacular. Despite losing two, I felt like I was doing the best sumo I could and didn't feel discouraged, which helped me to win my next four straight matches, including one against the only Japanese competitor there. I was proud of the various kimarite I ended up using: hatakikomi, tsukitaoshi, yoritaoshi, and then kotenage.

The four semi-finalists were the two Mongolians, me, and Derek Jeffries from Missouri, who I had previously beaten at Nationals in June. They paired us both against the Mongolians. I lost my match against Nyambayar, who had defeated me at last year's open as well, and Derek lost against Boldbaatar, so I ended up facing Derek in the third-place match and winning by sotogake. It was nice not only to medal, but to do so bouncing back from a bad start.

I think the real start of the night though as Roy Sims. He's the real deal. He won heavyweight and openweight at Nationals as well. Last year was his first time ever doing sumo, and he got by on raw strength and talent, but now he's picked up skill, too. He's come down occasionally to our place in Van Nuys to train with us, and last time was actually beating Byamba in practice matches, too. I'm very interested to see how he does at the world championships in Osaka!

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Yamamotoyama, who was working as the head shimpan, has this to say to me after my bronze medal win, in typical Japanese style: "やったじゃねぇか。来年は優勝"

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