Avitohol

he did not avoid demotion he escaped kadoban, again :'-(

But did you see the look Asa gave Osh at the end of the bout? Asa of the post-win stuff-you glance actually looked at Osh with what seemed to be respect and sympathy. I think he admired Osh standing up to him in spite of injuries. Such a waste. If the guy knew he wouldn't fight why to go up on dohyo. Asa was looking confused. you're getting it totally wrong here. (Clapping wildly...) he tried his best atm. that is only to be respected, despite the poor result.

you bet, but he won't take your bet (Sigh...)

in fact, it's really silly predictions. (Annoyed...) 0-1 and counting .... ;-) remember this one? ;-) or should I remind you in which topic it was posted? (Laughing...) it's obvious that you don't like him. however no need to make a fool of yourself with your stipid predictions or should I say hopes. (Clapping wildly...)

in fact, it's really silly predictions. (Clapping wildly...)

voted for kotooshu. about time to get first yusho. (In jonokuchi...)

Yesterday Kotooshu was elected fourth by the bulgarian sports journalists in the annual top ten of the "Best Sportsman of Bulgaria" survey. (Scratching chin...) In front of him were only: #1 Vesselin Topalov - world chess champion - 2005, #2 Nikolay Gergov - world & european champion in greko-roman wrestling for 2005 and #3 Armen Nazaryan - twice olympic champion and 3 times world champion - the last world title won this year, again in greko-roman wrestling. (Eating...) He was missing from the ceremony because he's preparing in Japan for the forthcoming tournament. Placing him so high up the ranks, shows how quickly popularity of sumo has increased in Bulgaria. :-P A year ago, almost nobody knew anything about sumo or Kotooshu. (Laughing...)

who got them?

I don't really care how much yusho Asashoryu wins, I wanna bet you that Kotooshu will win at least one in 2006. (Yusho winner...) So here's the deal, if he does it I choose for you an avatar & signature that you'll use a whole year. If he doesn't you chose my avatar & signature? Agreed? B-)

(Yusho winner...) wanna bet he'll win at least one yusho next year? B-)

(Blushing...) :-P can't wait till the evening to watch the bout (the live stream was full) but have to go to work now, i'm already being late. (Laughing...)

Done! :-P (Blushing...) (Sign of approval)

(Punk rocker...) :-)

no way. (Chucking salt...)

it certainly won't be a walk in the park, but still I wouldn't use the words "only chance" (Applauding...) he has every chance to make it. he has won against all of these 4 - Asa, Kaio, Chiotaykai & Hakuho in the last 3 basho and has nothing to be afraid of. (Applauding...)

A certain Petar Stoyanov was the president of Bulgaria between 1997 and 2002. Is this a coincidence or another prank from Kintamayama? (Eek...) I'm sorry, I just got used to them comming from time to time. Assuming that the name is the same, the Bulgarian spelling is Петър Стоянов. (In case you can see those characters in your browser). There are several possible transliterations into latin charset: Petyr Stoqnov Petyr Stoianov Petr Stoqnov Petr Stoianov Petr Stoyanov Petur Stoianov Petur Stoqnov Petur Stoyanov Petar Stoianov Petar Stoqnov Petar Stoyanov Note: the fourth sound of the first name has no equivalent in English. Or Latin. coinsidence of names. both Petar and Stoyanov are common here. you happen to know Bulgarian? (Laughing...) where are you from? :-/

you'd better be surprised. (Applauding...) so when does the playoff take place. in what time???

both of them win tomorrow, osh wins the playoff. (Carried away on a stretcher...) you heard it here first. (Carried away on a stretcher...) (Bouncing of excitement...)

a win tomorrow seals it. (Hugging...) (Laughing...)

silly. as silly as the other voices of back-pedalling, defensive & inattractive sumo are. (Applauding...) but i don't mind, you spit bullshit, I count the wins. (I am not worthy...)

Just 3 more wins and the yusho & hopefully the ozeki rank are in the bag. :-O

I've known Hakurozan and Rohou for a long time in amateur competition and never considered them anything "apart" from Russian. Of course I knew they were from Northern Ossetia/Alania, but didn't seem particularly important. Only after a couple of posts here about Ossetians did I become curious whether the Ossetians, at least in their case, and other strong Amateur Sumou Rikishi from the region, are a breed apart. So I asked a couple of them. Hakurozan and Rohou just independently told me, basically: "We are all Russian, we're one nation, man" meaning them and me, because I'm of Russian origin... This was surprising to me, in a nice way, basically, not a Passport-wise definition, seems they mostly take themselves to be Russian in spirit, irregardless of whether one was born here or there. Alan Karaev just looked at me in amazement and said basically: "What's the issue. I'm Russian, of course, that's my country. And ethnically I'm Ossetian, it's a region in Russia." So this is from the horse's mouth, so to speak... Oh, and I'm not Ossetian :-) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ok, they have the right to self-define themselves as whatever they want, in this particular case as Russians. though you know well, ossetians are not of slavic origin unlike russians. etnically those are two different peoples. fact. there are armenians in Bulgaria that think of themselves as Bulgarians and other that keep to recognize themsleves as armenians. it's individual and depends on lots of things, mainly the media in which they were raised. it influences a lot. to continue with the example from previous post - there are thousands (not to say millions) of ethnical Bulgarians in Macedonia that don't even know that they write and read in Bulgarian changed a little under a Serbian typewriting machine. they refuse to accept that - just because they were born and and raised at times when violence of the dictator caused their grandparents and parents to deny their ethnic origin. so now, this new generation in Macedonia is absolutely brainwashed. they are so confused to define where do they come from and where they belong to, that they steal both the history of greek people (in the case of their claim being descendants of Alexander The Great (Dribbling...) ) and also Bulgarian history (in case of king Samuel being a "macedonian"). It's absolutrely ridiculous and amusing. (Dribbling...) But that's how a new "nacionality" is born. :-S

he's ethnic ossetian. fact is they're not Russians. Russia is an enormous country, a federation that has no less than 100 different ethnic minorities. not a big surprise considering the vast territories on which it is spread. and Tsagaev is a citizen of Russia and Bulgaria. he lives here in Sofia, he speaks Bulgarian fluently and his intention is stay where he is. I consider him as Bulgarian too, but that doesn't change the fact he's ethnic ossetian, as there are ethnic turks in Bulgaria or etnic armenians. :-P <{POST_SNAPBACK}> fair points but his passport is his nationality - international 'rules are rules' of course and a subject to which I have no answer. His passport that is. I do feel though, that by accepting the passport of a nation you accept being a native of that nation. My son is of dual nationality English / Japanese and must accept due recognition of both and give that same recognition. Ethnicity can be respected within nationality on the global stage providing the acceptance and maturity to do so exists in a given nation - when it doesn't - things get bloody and bloody silly as recent European / Iraqi / Sudanese history demonstrates. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> you should not always believe to what is written in the passport. B-) according to modern passports macedonian nacionality exists (Punk rocker...) but according to history no such ethnicity ever existed (Nodding yes...) >:-( i believe Makineko should be able to second that. ;-) or ... maybe not ... Tito and his comrades had their own view of history printed in those Yugo textbooks. (Neener, neener...) (Sign of disapproval)

he's ethnic ossetian. fact is they're not Russians. Russia is an enormous country, a federation that has no less than 100 different ethnic minorities. not a big surprise considering the vast territories on which it is spread. and Tsagaev is a citizen of Russia and Bulgaria. he lives here in Sofia, he speaks Bulgarian fluently and his intention is stay where he is. I consider him as a Bulgarian too, but that doesn't change the fact he's ethnic ossetian, as there are ethnic turks in Bulgaria or etnic armenians. >:-(