102nd High School Sumo Kanazawa Tournament (2018-5-20)

[mikawa 1,794]

第102回全国高校相撲金沢大会

Individual Competition

Winner - Hanada Hidetora (花田 秀虎), Wakayama Commercial High School, Wakayama

Runner-Up - Haruyama Mantaro (春山 万太郎), Saitama Sakae High School, Saitama

Semi-Finals - Saito Daisuke (齋藤 大輔), Saitama Sakae High School, Saitama

Semi-Finals - Nakamura Taiki (中村 泰輝), Kaiyo High School, Niigata

 

Team Competition

Winner - Saitama Sakae High School

Runner-Up - Kanazawa Gakuin High School

Semi-Finals - Hiryu High School
Semi-Finals - Kanazawa Technical High School

 

Videos

Individual Semi-Final #1 - Saito Daisuke (齋藤 大輔), Saitama Sakae High School  vs  Haruyama Mantaro (春山 万太郎), Saitama Sakae High School
Individual Semi-Final #2 - Nakamura Taiki (中村 泰輝), Kaiyo High School  vs  Hanada Hidetora (花田 秀虎), Wakayama Commercial High School

 

Individual Final - Haruyama Mantaro (春山 万太郎), Saitama Sakae High School  vs  Hanada Hidetora (花田 秀虎), Wakayama Commercial High School

 

Team Semi-Final #1 - Hiryu High School vs Saitama Sakae High School
Team Semi-Final #2 - Kanazawa Technical High School vs Kanazawa Gakuin High School

 

Team Final - Saitama Sakae High School vs Kanazawa Gakuin High School

 

Comments

This year's high school sumo scene is shaping up to be a 2-horse race, with Saitama's Saito Daisuke and Wakayama's Hanada Hidetora being the ones to beat. Both of them are incredibly skilled rikishi who know their way around the dohyo, which is always great to see. This time around, Saito lost out to his Saitama club-mate Haruyama Mantaro, which paved the way for Hanada to claim the individual title.

Because Haruyama is so familiar with Saito from their keikos, he knew that he had to keep Saito off the belt, which he duly did, and an opportunistic push to the side was enough to send an unbalanced Saito out of the ring. I hope to cover Haruyama Mantaro in the next amateur sumo rivalries story, as this may be relevant for the coming year.

A team consisting of Saito, Haruyama and former Middle School Yokozuna Kamiyama Ryuichi proved too strong for their competition, as Saitama Sakae successfully defended their Kanazawa title from last year. Like Toyo University in college sumo, they will be difficult to beat this year.

On a side note, kudos to all those cheering students, they really did an amazing job.

Edited May 26, 2018 by mikawa

[Katooshu 3,485]

Ya, that was a great atmosphere for the team competition! Also seemed like an intense staredown in the first match of the team final and quite the verbal celebration from Saito; I wonder if the crowd excitement transfered to the rikishi.

Hanada has a well-rounded set of tools and seems to be very smart in there. He made himself difficult to predict by using a diverse range of approaches. Same is true of my favourite Saito, although he can sometimes get a bit overeager in going for the finish, and that showed itself.

Haruyama is quick and adept with inhashi and other techniques to take advantage of opponents who over commit. Nakamura got pushed out quickly in the semis, but when he gets his tachiai right I've  seen him really plow people over, perhaps more emphatically than I regularly see from any other high schooler.

I'm glad that you're featuring Haruyama in your next rivalaries post, as I haven't found much about him.

Is there a website that lists all the high school results?

Edited May 27, 2018 by Katooshu

[mikawa 1,794]

23 hours ago, Katooshu said:

Is there a website that lists all the high school results?

There doesn't seem to be a generic site for high school results, best bet would be to check the individual tournament websites