Kiribayama - Not So New Kid on The Block

[Jejima 1,415]

Kiribayama was the new bright thing at the start of 2020. He ended the year with a disappointing 3-12 at M1E.

Will he bounce back in 2021?

Please expand your vote with a comment below. Comments are often used as tie-breakers at the end of the year to determine the yusho winner for an annual poll.

[Churaumi 745]

He'll become a regular at the top of makuuchi but not a sanyaku regular. I predict komusubi at the highest. He'll beat an ozeki, but not Hakuho. If Hakuho shows up and meets him, that is. He won't face Kakkuryu in a playoff, so he can't face Kakkuryu. He'll get 55 wins on the dot. 9-6 each tournament with a little variation.

[MumboJumbo 37]

I agree on him staying around the top of makuuchi. He sticks around M1-M4 until pushing for Komusubi in November. Picks up three wins over Ozeki this year.

[WAKATAKE 2,672]

He'll have some ups and downs but I can see him staying in the joi. However his make-koshi basho will be larger than his KK basho. I don't think he'll break sanyaku yet either

[Jejima 1,415]

2021 will be his year! He will make it to Sekiwake for the January 2022 banzuke. At some stage he will defeat Yokozuna Hakuho - probably for a kinboshi. 52 wins for the year. 

[Oshirokita 192]

I think Kiribayama may emulate Endo and be a threat to Sanyaku but spend most of his time in mid-Maegashira next year. He will beat an ozeki (nearly everybody ranked in the joi does so over time) and finish the year at M9e with 39 wins.

[Oortael 153]

I put him among the 2nd tier of rikishi for the years coming. So I put him at the top of Maegashira for 2022. Health permitting, he should win enough in Hatsu to compete vs Sanyaku for most of 2021, still falling short of Sanyaku promotion himself. Getting 2 Ozeki wins (Shodai and Asanoyama).

[Morty 1,505]

I think he's another meat grinder regular like Endo or Hokotofuji, but is unlikely to break through above that. So M1-M3, he'll knock off an Ozeki and have a winning aggregate (just)

[Pitinosato 120]

he will make it to sanyaku at some point

but not regularly

Pitinosato

[Jejima 1,415]

Over half of us think that Kiribayama will be ranked at one of the lower sanyaku ranks in January 2022. His KK in January will help start his climb towards his current career high of M1E.

Ozeki is almost universally chosen to the highest ranked rikishi that he will defeat. I suppose this is much more likely when the Yokozunas don't turn up to play. But we all think that he will defeat at least one sanyaku rikishi this year. This might be on the final day of the January basho, when he will face a komusubi.... (Which would please Pitinosato - the only person to select komusubi.)

Looks like the 48-50 win area seems to be the most popular choice for his total number of wins, which is roughly 8 or so per basho. I guess his 8 or 9 wins in January, from a lowish rank, might help towards that goal.

Let's see who can claim the yusho for this poll at the end of the year.

[Jejima 1,415]

This was Kiribayama's record for 2021....

January: M8W - 8-7
March: M4E - 7-8
May: M4E - 6-9
July: M6W - 9-6
September: M2W - 9-6
November: K1W - 6-9 - this was his first basho as a sanyaku rikishi.

I am presuming that he will be ranked at around M2 for January 2022.  Almost certainly within the M1-M3 range. That was predicted by WAKATAKE, Oortael and Morty.

Over the course of the year, he had four victories over Ozekis (Asanoyama twice, and Takakeisho and Shodai). Most people guessed this correctly, including the aforementioned trio of WAKATAKE, Oortael and Morty. So, the yusho will likely go to one of these three, unless they are all way out for question 3....

Kiribayama had 45 wins (and 45 losses) for 2021. So evenly balanced.

 

WAKATAKE went with 32 - so out of the race.

Oortael and Morty both went with 48. So we will go to the comments for the kettei-sen...

Their comments are one after each other (see above), so easy to compare. Based on that, Oortael came closest to predicting Kiribayama's year.

So yusho  to @Oortael and Jun-yusho  to @Morty.

 

[Oortael 153]

3 hours ago, Jejima said:

So yusho  to @Oortael 

So, 2 poll yusho in quick succession. I'm waiting for the Yokozuna Deliberation Concil to decide on my fate ... maybe after they discussed about Omicron's impact on degeiko's impact on upper Maegashira's sumo level.