Interhigh 2021

[Akinomaki 39,515]

So far it is still on schedule, August 6th-8th in Itoigawa, Niigata, the location of Kaiyou high: the sumo event of the Hokushinetsu soutai. Pupils from another local high school designed the countdown board and were at the unveiling ceremony in the city hall on the 2nd.

Yomiuri shimbun is one of the sponsors of the interhigh http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/niigata/news/20210405-OYTNT50078/

https://www.koukousoutai.com/2021soutai/activity/post.php?xcd=0053

[Akinomaki 39,515]

The interhigh will be without spectators, but so far it looks like it will take place this year. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/niigata/20210430/1030016669.html

[Yamanashi 3,676]

4 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

The interhigh will be without spectators, but so far it looks like it will take place this year. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/niigata/20210430/1030016669.html

If you think carefully about the distancing protocols and relative risk factors, they should hold these tournaments with spectators but without participants.

[Katooshu 3,079]

Unstoppable Tetsuya Ochiai of Tottari Johoku repeats as high school yokozuna, beating Omori of Kanazawa Gakuin in the final. They faced each other in the semifinals of last year's event, which Ochiai also won. Skillful Mongolian Sosofu of Tottari Jokoku made the semifinals this year.

Tottori Johoku also won the team event, beating Kanazawa Gakuin 4-1 in the final. They last won in 2016 and had made the final every tournament since, and now are able to pull the win off again.Ochiai is powerful and skillful, almost always getting a superior position on opponents and manhandling them like they're little kids - man vs boy stuff. I only know of him losing 1 time in high school. He was also ranked #1 on the 2018 Middle School Banzuke.

I can't yet find footage of this tournament, so here is a match between Ochiai and Omori from earlier in the year:

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by Katooshu

[mikawa 1,794]

Below is a video showing the semi-final bouts of Sosorkhuu vs Omori and of Fujita vs Ochiai, followed by the final between Omori and Ochiai. "Unstoppable" is definitely the right word to describe Ochiai. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that he is one of the strongest High School sumo wrestlers of all time.

If Hokuseiho's 21-0 start to his Ozumo career made everyone excited about future talents, just think what Ochiai might accomplish if he decides to turn pro. After all, Ochiai, who is a Tottori kohai of Hokuseiho, is much stronger and far more talented.

 

[mikawa 1,794]

And here's a video showing the team final between Kanazawa Gakuin High School and Tottori Johoku High School. Interesting that Tottori chose to field their best wrestler Ochiai in the third position. It's like they're saying: if we go 2-0 up, he can get us across the line; if we're at 1-1, he can put us into a winning position; if we are 2-0 down, he can start off our comeback. In any case, their strategy worked, as Tottori won their first Inter-High team competition in five years, and their fourth overall.

Since the graduation of their national champions Kusano Naoya and Hanaoka Masaki, Kumamoto Buntoku are no longer as strong a contender as they used to be in recent years, and had a Top 8 finish in this tournament. On the other hand, it will take traditional powerhouse Saitama Sakae about 3 more years to return to the top, once they enlist the likes of Kodama Hayato and Toyoda Rinnosuke.

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by mikawa

[mikawa 1,794]

Individual Competition

Winner - Ochiai Tetsuya (落合 哲也), Tottori Johoku High School

Runner-Up - Omori Yasuhiro (大森 康弘), Kanazawa Gakuin High School

Semi-Finals - Sosorkhuu, Tottori Johoku High School
Semi-Finals - Fujita Kazuto (藤田 一翔), Sanbongi Agriculture High School

Quarter-Finals - Tamura Riku (田村 吏玖), Minoshima High School
Quarter-Finals - Kawazoe Fuma (川副 楓馬), Buntoku High School
Quarter-Finals - Takahashi Toma (高橋 透真), Kiso Seiho High School
Quarter-Finals - Shino Yuma (篠 侑磨), Kanazawa Gakuin High School

 

Team Competition

Winner - Tottori Johoku High School, Ehime

Runner-Up - Kanazawa Gakuin High School, Ishikawa

Semi-Finals - Minoshima High School, Wakayama
Semi-Finals - Hiryu High School, Shizuoka

Quarter-Finals - Buntoku High School, Kumamoto
Quarter-Finals - Kagoshima Commercial High School, Kagoshima
Quarter-Finals - Saitama Sakae High School, Saitama
Quarter-Finals - Takaoka Koryo High School, Toyama

 

[Akinomaki 39,515]

Joint 3rd Fujita, qf vs. Takahashi

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Team - local Kaiyo High lost in the 1st round of the final tournament

oo o o

as did Kuroha High

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80kg tournament

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Results https://www.sposoku.com/高校総体インターハイ/高校総体インターハイ-2017-相撲の速報、結果！日程/

[Seiyashi 4,068]

Wew. That is some presence from a high schooler. He almost looks like an outright pro amidst all his peers.

And from Tottori Johoku too. Am I the only one who foresees Miyagino having an absolute monster next generation sekitori duo, and the first stable since Sadogatake in the early 2010's to possibly accomplish the feat of having two ozeki-ranked wrestlers at the same time?

[Gurowake 3,874]

5 hours ago, mikawa said:

Interesting that Tottori chose to field their best wrestler Ochiai in the third position. It's like they're saying: if we go 2-0 up, he can get us across the line; if we're at 1-1, he can put us into a winning position; if we are 2-0 down, he can start off our comeback.

I recall there being something of a to-do about high school tennis ordering of players around here, because they are supposed to put them in order of skill, but unscrupulous coaches might put their worst performer in the top spot and the rest one spot below where they "should" be.  I think the competition was 4 singles matches and 1 doubles match (and I'm guessing this was played after the 4 singles, which all happened at the same time, and the doubles were only played if necessary using whichever of the 4 singles players you wanted, but I honestly don't know), though I might be misremembering.  If your squad was exactly the same skill slope and level as the opposition, getting 3 highly-favored singles matches at the cost of one sure loss in the remaining singles match would be enough to win fairly easily despite having the same squad skill.  Given the likely skill discrepancies in high school tennis, this is probably a real issue; it's really hard for a tennis player to beat someone better than them - at least compared to sumo.

Is there any other thought put into the order that they put people in?  Is it mostly random?  Might they not even know the order of skill?

Edited August 10, 2021 by Gurowake

[Seiyashi 4,068]

50 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

but unscrupulous coaches might put their worst performer in the top spot and the rest one spot below where they "should" be.

It's also a problem in team chess where IIRC you are required to order your players in terms of skill, because teams would otherwise do the exact same thing. Of course, at the high school level when I played, a lot of teams had trouble scrounging up 5 players let alone good ones, so the last board might as well have been a sac too if you could field one chap who actually knew how to play chess in that position, even if he was only marginally better than average.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Kaminariyuki 497]

6 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Wew. That is some presence from a high schooler. He almost looks like an outright pro amidst all his peers.

And from Tottori Johoku too. Am I the only one who foresees Miyagino having an absolute monster next generation sekitori duo, and the first stable since Sadogatake in the early 2010's to possibly accomplish the feat of having two ozeki-ranked wrestlers at the same time?

I doubt you're the only one, as maybe the trepidation of this transpiring underpins a bit of the hostility we've been seeing, political hostility that is. And, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. The kid does look really good, as well as a few of the other competitors. Thanks to Katooshu, mikawa and Akinomaki for these posts. If I ever get to return to Japan, one of my sumo goals is to get one of my friends there to take me to a high school match or tournament.

[Gurowake 3,874]

6 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

first stable since Sadogatake in the early 2010's to possibly accomplish the feat of having two ozeki-ranked wrestlers at the same time

You mean two wrestlers ranked *only* Ozeki.  Harumafuji was Yokozuna when Terunofuji was first Ozeki.  And I don't see what's so special about them both being ranked only Ozeki as opposed to one (or both) being Yokozuna as well.

[Seiyashi 4,068]

1 minute ago, Gurowake said:

You mean two wrestlers ranked *only* Ozeki.  Harumafuji was Yokozuna when Terunofuji was first Ozeki.  And I don't see what's so special about them both being ranked only Ozeki as opposed to one (or both) being Yokozuna as well.

That's true. I wonder why that didn't occur to me. And wasn't Kisenosato yokozuna when Takayasu made ozeki too for Tagonoura?

I don't think any stable ever since Musashimaru-era Musashigawa and/or Takanohana/Wakanohana Futagoyama has come close to the same type of dominance.

[Gurowake 3,874]

6 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

And wasn't Kisenosato yokozuna when Takayasu made ozeki too for Tagonoura?

That is true as well, and they were only a few basho separated from being Ozeki only together; it's harder to remember for me because Kisenosato rarely finished basho then, so the schedulers having to work around their lack of match was less prevalent.  Kotooshu-Kotoshogiku finished co-existing at Ozeki less than a year before Terunofuji was promoted and it was right when I started watching Sumo, so it was what I immediately thought of.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Gurowake

[Katooshu 3,079]

Random fact

The guy doing the commentary on screen in the 2 videos Mikawa posted once faced Daiamami, with the title of middle school yokozuna on the line:

 

[mikawa 1,794]

On 10/08/2021 at 17:30, Gurowake said:

Is there any other thought put into the order that they put people in?  Is it mostly random?  Might they not even know the order of skill?

From what I've seen, the coaches definitely know the strengths of the wrestlers in their clubs, especially when there are a lot more training sessions at high school level and above. The team order that they decide on most likely has quite a bit of thought put into it, with each school having their own strategies.

[Akinomaki 39,515]

Captain Ochiai and a team member reported the double yusho to the governor of Tottori. Great sempai Terunofuji inspired him and will hopefully do so for next year.

vid

[Katooshu 3,079]

By the way, after a strong start and much Chris Gould hype, Ochiari's middle school rival (and Kotoshoho's bro) Taiki Tebakari didn't really live up to expectations in high school - I don't think he ever made it past the best 16 in a national tournament, and no team yusho in national competition, which keeps a 3-year drought running for Saitama Sakae. Ochiai has far surpassed him, as did his Saitama teammate Shoichiro Takeda. COVID certainly didn't help of course, limiting competitions as it did.

I wonder if he'll join his brother in the pros soon.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Katooshu