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mikawa

The *Unofficial* Amateur Sumo Awards 2017

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Happy new year everyone!

As we now reach the end of another year of amateur sumo, let's take a look back at some of the highlights of the year, and see who has impressed the most in each category.

College Rikishi of the Year

There are a number of contenders for the college rikishi of the year, such as Nakashima Nozomi, this year's Student Yokozuna, who also came second at the Towada Tournament; and Kizaki Shinnosuke, who won the Kariya Tournament, and was runner-up at 2 other events (he was also semi-finalist at this year's All Japan Amateur Championships). However, I feel that the most consistent performance was by Toyo's Terasawa Itsuki, who won both the Kanazawa and the Usa Tournaments, and has also reached the latter stages of at least two other events. In addition, Terasawa has been a key figure in Toyo's continued dominance of the team competitions.

College Club of the Year

Toyo University, the same as last year. What can you say? Toyo are winners of the Uwajima Tournament, the Kanazawa Tournament, and the Towada Tournament. On top of all that, they have also been finalist at the Usa Tournament and semi-finalist at the Kariya Tournament. Toyo have dominated the team events for a second year running, and with the strength and depth that they have, who's to say that they won't continue this trend in 2018? As a sidenote, look out for Toyo's Shiroyama Seira. He's only in his second year at university, and is already coming close to winning a number of different tournaments.

High School Rikishi of the Year

This surely has to go to Naya Konosuke, grandson of the late Dai-Yokozuna Taiho. He's been impressive all year long, a direct result of a change in his eating habits, and topped that off by winning the Kokutai in October. Not only that, Naya also won the Kochi tournament and finished runner-up at the Usa Tournament, which will certainly give him confidence when he enters Ozumo next year.

High School Club of the Year

As much as I would like to award this to Kumamoto's Buntoku High School or Niigata's Kaiyo High School, Saitama Sakae High School are once again worthy winners in this category. They are winners at the Kanazawa and Kochi Tournaments, and won the Kokutai to boot (and they were semi-finalist in two other tournaments as well). It would be interesting to see how well they perform next year following two of their key members, Naya Konosuke and Tebakari Toshiki, deciding to turn pro, but I'm sure they'll still be there or thereabouts regardless.

Middle School Rikishi of the Year

Goes to the big and powerful Mukainakano Shingo. He blazed through the competition at the Middle School Student Championships, and was unlucky not to win the Middle School Championships as well. Although he was ultimately denied the title of Middle School Yokozuna, Mukainakano has undoubtedly been the best middle school rikishi this year.

Grade 6 Rikishi of the Year

2017 has been an interesting year for Grade 6, with Ote Kira winning the Hakuho Cup, Tasaki Masami winning the Wanpaku Tournament, and Ichikizaki Daisuke winning the Primary School Championships. However, the one most deserving of this award goes to Katsushika Shiratori Sumo Club's Aino Shogo. Although he wasn't able to win anything this year, he did finish runner-up on two occasions - one was a good bout but a narrow defeat against Tasaki at Wanpaku, and the other was after he had disposed of 3 contenders on his way to the final of the Primary School Championships (Ote Kira, Tasaki Masami and the 2-time Wanpaku Yokozuna Yamashita Shosuke). It's true that he didn't win anything, but he did enough to lay claim to being the best rikishi in his year group this year.

Grade 5 Rikishi of the Year

This has to go to this year's Primary School Yokozuna, Nishijima Yura. Although he didn't do well at this year's Wanpaku Tournament (getting knocked out by the eventual winner, Fukuhara Joichiro, who incidentally beat Nishijima in last year's Wanpaku as well, both times after getting a morozashi grip), he did win the Hakuho Cup for a fourth successive time, which was courtesy of yet another narrow victory over his eternal rival, Nakanishi Kaishin. His bout in the final of the Primary School Championships against the defending champion Nishide Daiki had to go to a mono-ii, but it was enough to give him the win, his first time in the competition. This is an intriguing year group, as no one truly stands out amongst all the different styles of sumo that are present.

Grade 4 Rikishi of the Year

The one and only Kodama Hayato. I've been praising this kid for a couple of years now, even going as far as saying that he's my favourite Wanpaku rikishi of all time. He won the Hakuho Cup for the second time running at the start of this year, and became Wanpaku Yokozuna at the first time of asking. An unlucky loss in the final of the Primary School Championships meant that he couldn't complete the "grand slam" this year, but there's no doubt that he stands heads and shoulders above every other rikishi in his year group.

Sumo Club / Dojo of the Year

Goes to (officially) the number one club in the country this year, Kashiwa Junior Sumo Club. They have produced many talented rikishi over the years, including the aforementioned Tebakari Toshiki and Nishijima Yura, and won this year's National Club Championships for the first time in the competition's history. The Kanazawa brothers of Kinboshi Sumo Club must have been very sad to leave their friends in Aomori, but they were very lucky that by moving down to Chiba, they were able to become members of Kashiwa Junior Sumo Club, and with it, Kanazawa Sorato became a national champion in sumo, a mere two years after taking up the sport.

Edited by mikawa
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Great post!

Do you know when we'll have an idea of where the most recent batch of high school graduates have ended up for university?

Edited by Katooshu

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Nice piece of work as always Mikawa. Big thanks !

As you i think Terasawa deserve the college rikishi of the year award. Just by his regularity. KIzaki is a close call too.

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On 03/01/2018 at 02:32, Katooshu said:

Do you know when we'll have an idea of where the most recent batch of high school graduates have ended up for university?

We'll find out once the new academic year begins in Japan, so that's from April onwards

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I think my four main contenders for college rikishi of the year would be:

 

Kizaki (East Japan champion, Kariya champion, best 4 at the All-Japans, several runner-ups and best 4s in smaller competitions)

Terasawa (Usa champion, Kanazawa champion, weight class nationals runner-up, at least one best 4 that I know of)

Nakajima (Student yokozuna, 135+ weight class national champion, Towara runner-up)

Shiroyama (Kokutai champion, best 4 at the Student championships, multiple best 4s at smaller competitions)

 

Shiroyama had the best results overall at the major competitions but to my knowledge didn't capture anything other than the Kokutai. Terasawa did well in the smaller competitions but couldn't get past the best 16 at the MsTD granting ones. Nakajima had success at both levels, as did Kizaki, although they differed in that Nakajima won a 'big one', whereas Kizaki was the more successful rikishi in smaller competitions.

From the results I'm aware of, which probably isn't all of them, and going just by individual competition (arguably a very flawed method), I think I might go Kizaki, but it's a tough call.

Edited by Katooshu

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