messi19

Must be a bit frustrating for you Asashosakari to drop off the group of leaders by such a thin margin... Actually IIRC during my yusho run last basho several times did I just barely make it above the cut and pick up a victory. I guess some luck is always needed to take the yusho..

75 is what it had been up to this basho, right? Or were they changing the bit rate the last couple of basho too (without me noticing it) ?

Kaiguma, from the little I have my seen of my adoptee he *is* prone to henka because he goes all out at the tachi-ai. No back-pedalling, but forward moving sumo no matter what. It makes it very hard to avoid falling for a henka - even in makuuchi a rikishi like Chiyotaikai has virtually no ability to adapt to his opponent side-stepping. Even Yokozuna Hakuho fell for one last basho so I hope Masunoyama's opponents will take him straight on all the time even knowing that they may get blasted out of the ring in less than two seconds. (Neener, neener...)

Well, as for Masunoyama - his loss today came after he was at the receiving end of a henka by Mizuguchi, but mid-makushita is indeed a big step up on everything else he's had to deal with so far..I wonder how he compares in keiko to Takunishiki who seems to be back on track and looking good for KK. Right now Takunishiki is probably the strongest Chiganoura rikishi, but Masunoyama will get there in time. (I am not worthy...)

Impressive fact for today: Hakuho is now on a 27-bout winning streak at Natsu Basho. 28 counting the kettei-sen with Miyabiyama in 2006. His last loss at this basho came against the very same Miyabiyama on Day 5 in 2006. He's also chasing his third straight natsu yusho. His previous two have been arguably two of the most important he's had up to this point. 2006 was his very first makuuchi yusho while his zensho last year clinched yokozuna promotion.

Actually I have to disagree with that. Henka do frequently result in kimarite such as Uwatedashinage or Okuridashi and quite a few others. If I'm not mistaken Kaio had two tottari wins last year with both coming after he henka'ed Kotooshu. In fact any win by a given kimarite can be a result of a henka even though hikiotoshi and hatakikomi are indeed the most frequent kimarite resulting from a henka. I do wonder what's the percentage of uwatedashinage wins following a henka compared to the obvious hikiotoshi/hatakikomi though. Considering that there are a lot less uwatedashinage wins over the course of a honbasho the results may well be surprising.

The reason may be whatever, but the slow-motion replay shows Hakurozan's foot and Toyohibiki's hand touching off at the very, very same time. I must disagree. The replays I saw clearly showed Hakurozan out before any part of Toyohibiki touched the ground. That's right. Higginbotham: Try stopping the video at about 2.18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugAj0-EwZ-U I'm truly impressed with the gyoji here. Absolutely the right call made and it wasn't easy at all.

Interesting bout between Homasho and Iwakiyama. For a moment it looked like Iwakiyama had set up the easy okuridashi, however not only does Homasho recover but gain morozashi in the process. Will Kimurayama be the next one to make it to makuuchi? It's way too early to tell obviously, but he's looking in fine form just like last basho.

Any chance of them increasing the bitrate for makuuchi at least (cause that's when the link to the stream appears on the kyokai site)..68 kbit/s is... well...

Anybody know what happened to the Chiganoura blog? On Tochinoyama's blog there is a link leading to it, but it hasn't been working for several days now. I hope it still exists somewhere because even though I didn't understand anything, the hilarious pictures (especially of Masunoyama and Daiechizeno) alone made it worth visiting it. (Holiday feeling...)

Interestingly two of Shiratsuka's eight career losses came at the hands of Tamadaiki. The fact that Tamadaiki has proven capable of handling a rikishi quickly approaching the top of makushita indicates that he may not yet hit the wall this basho despite his run of 4-3 KK...

Hmm, I'd be interested in which rikishi you're thinking of...though if that rikishi - whoever it is - doesn't end up damaging Baruto's knee in the next couple of basho it wouldn't necessarily mean that you're wrong since a lot of things need to come together for such an unfortunate event to happen. Thinking along those lines.. the Kotoshogiku-Baruto matchup will be one to follow, but I'm probably just saying that with their last bout in mind when Kotoshogiku's gaburi style forced the crushing abisetaoshi and left Baruto with a major knee injury.

I'd like to see Hoshikaze make it, but despite his terrific nage ability and overall good variety in his sumo, there's the big question mark of whether he is physically strong enough for his sumo to work when he's in the juryo promotion zone or ranked just outside of it. In the last couple of basho he seems to have established himself in the first quarter of makushita so he should be capable of taking the next step. Daiyubu has so Hoshikaze can as well.

I guess Katayama despite being about two years younger than Kyokunankai can be considered more of a sektori veteran considering he has been a sekitori for almost four years now (23 basho as a sekitori overall). Kyokunankai has had 16 sekitori basho and unlike Katayama none in Makuuchi. Then again, Kyokunankai's hatsu dohyo came no less than 9 years ahead of Katayama's. Kyokunankai in that sense is much more of a veteran, but not as much of a sekitori veteran. Anyway, I know that the poll was made taking into account the age factor so there are no objections from my part. (I am not worthy...)

I don't know if it was "badly injured", but it was indeed hurt in a bout with Shirononami on Day 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7SwXmxfCgk Anyway, a rikishi like Tochinoshin can overcome such an injury. His yotsu-sumo is so sound and his yorikiri's usually look so "clean" and convincing. I tend to agree with Kintamayama that he will eventually (probably sometime this year) become the better of the Georgians as far as banzuke ranking is concerned.

Nice poll, it is interesting to continue this topic! Out of the ones mentioned here Shimotori, when healthy, to me still looks more than any of the others like a solid lower makuuchi rikishi. Unfotunately injuries have made him drop to juryo twice within the last year. I can only imagine him dropping to makushita if he injures himself again. My choice would be Kyokunankai because I've never been too impressed by his sumo on a juryo-level, but much like last time he is definitely capable of regaining sekitori status if he indeed does drop.

As for me he was just not my first choice. :-) I think Kokkai and Wakanoho are more likely to go MK, but it is very possible in Baruto's case. Both the sanyaku and the joi jin have become so tough and I expect it to be the difference in Wakanoho's quest for KK compared to last basho. At first glance the opponents may not appear to have changed that much. But facing Kotoshogiku, Kisenosato, Chiyotaikai and Tokitenku rather than Wakanosato, Hokutoriki, Tochinonada and a fusensho win over Kotooshu makes it just so much harder to pick up 8 wins. I also agree that Tochinoshin is fundamentally such a good rikishi that barring injuries it'd be a real surprise if he didn't pick up 9 or 10 wins. Not too mention that all the shin nyumaku seem to do well recently. Not only the ones destined for future success like Wakanoho/Goeido/Tochiozan but even the likes of Ryuo/Wakakirin/Toyohibiki looked very solid in the first basho but once they faced similar competition again (after an expected MK in the next basho) they were unable to bounce back in a similar way. Tochinoshin belongs in the first category as far as I can judge.

Juryo seems very even this time. No Baruto/Iwakiyama type in there, neither a truly impressive up-and comer making his sekitori debut like Tochinoshin in January and therefore no clear fronrunner as far as the yusho is concerned. Sakaizawa and Ichihara are always in with a shot based on their ability, but they're coming off injuries. Taking that into account I'd be surprised if someone ended up with a better record than 12-3. Even 12-3 might be a stretch. Kimurayama did go 12-3 last time, but I can't imagine him repeating that record.

By the way this just got me thinking that Hakuho would probably not mind if he had to face someone other than Kisenosato on Day 1. They've faced each other on shonichi twice and Kisenosato won both times. On the other hand Asasekiryu - another possible shonichi opponent considering the Takasago beya issue - also handed him a Day 1 loss in Nagoya 2006.

Normally the Yokozuna East fights the Komusubi West on Shonichi. Obviously Asashoryu cannot face Asasekiryu though. Who is he likely to be matched up against instead? Will they pair him with Kisenosato who would normally face Hakuho? I guess we can't tell for sure, but what's the most likely scenario?

In Sadogatake I'd very much doubt it is considered not manly as in Kotoshogiku's blog (which is kindly translated by Fay) you can see pictures of him eating a cake virtually all the time. (Laughing...)

Possible, but then again part of why Hakuho lost the yusho was a henka from a wrestler belonging to the same ichimon. I would be surprised if a european wrestler took that much pride in identifying himself with the ichimon he belongs to.

Why is the interviewer claiming that Kokkai probably supported Hakuho in the senshuraku bout? There was no way there would be a kettei-sen involving him (Kokkai) even if both Hakuho and Kokkai won their bouts on senshuraku because Hakuho and Asashoryu were 12-2 while Kokkai was 11-3 and one of the Yokozuna had to finish 13-2...

Nope, the butsukari is from the general soken session just prior to Natsu Basho last year. The incident you mentioned was a result of Asashoryu working him out in de-geiko prior to his return in Hatsu this year.

According to Isegahama Oyakata the heya's sekitori will only be changing their shikona in case of a promotion. I guess that means promotion to a rank they haven't been to before rather than repromotion to a division/rank they had already held previously.