Aki 2008 - Day 1 comments

[Kaikitsune Makoto]

Aki basho is here, new Rijicho apologized during his opening speech. Aran has swollen and so on.

Ri looked a bit less aggressive than optimal but rather easily flipped Katsunofuji over with uwatenage using high over the top grip. He was good against sekitori at keiko prior to basho so should be a candidate for great result.

Kokkai had his heart muscle' s conduction routes decreased and looked his usual self when slapping down Kasugao.

Wakanosato had good tachi-ai and pulled Tochinoshin down with energetic sumo.

Married blog-veteran Futeno had good defense against Yoshikaze's yoshikazeism and caught him at the end ousting him well.

Tochiozan stopped Toyohibiki, got morozashi and won by sukuinage. Strong start

Goeido and Kakuryu ended up in migi-yotsu which is the favourite one of both rikishi. Before that Goeido showed solid footwork and genkiness. From migiyotsu Goeido took initiative with a strong throw. Powerful and explosive uwatedashinage Looks good.

Aminishiki was the forcer but Toyonoshima did a little bullfighting move and Ami just stumbled down. Rather neat move to be honest. This bout did not give good grounds for evaluation of the level of genkiness of these two sumo wrestlers.

Shogun had right hand on the belt first and U never got his. Some healthy defense at first but finally Shogun did his drive and U was escorted out. Strong sumo by Shogun.

Very intense bout between Kisenosato and Osh. Kise took control first driving Osh backwards but Osh circled away with the help of shitatenage attempt, then got his right hand on the belt and was able to lift Kise's centre of gravity up. Kise tried one more twist at the edge but Osh nudged him over and Kise went down hard. Good oozumou.

Kotomitsuki survived a slapdown and pushed MIya out well. He looked healthy, happy and sober.

Asashoryu approached the bout with Baruto the same way as last time. Two-handed grip on the frontal mawashi and yank. Worked well. Baruto went down.

Hakuho had ridiculously perfect tachi-ai and its after-effect. Such is life.

[Randomitsuki]

Complementary notes, provided by someone who proclaimed his inability to read bouts, so take my observations with a grain of salt:

In Juryo, it looks as if Ichihara is in much better shape than the last two bashos.

Kakizoe wasn't impressive in his win against Kitazakura.

Kimurayama and Tamawashi will have trouble if they continue with the sloppy sumo of today.

Takekaze was a total mess against Kitataiki.

Chiyohakuho looked very genki and flexible against Dejima.

Tamanoshima looks stronger than in the last few basho, dominating Takamisakari from the start.

Hokutoriki still doesn't know the feeling of clay on his knuckles. After two matta by Masatsukasa he went into his usual routine. However, quite good sumo for his abilities.

I have completely missed Iwakiyama's win against Tokitenku. Quite a surprising result, methinks. Any information on what happened?

Both Ama and Tochinonada looked very genki. Ama has shown that he can even escape from a difficult position with forward-moving sumo. Next stop Ozeki.

Chiyotaikai is difficult to assess after the first bout. But he is still immensely fast.

[Musashoryu]

I was impressed by how mean Hakuho was....very nice....my only disappointment is that i have to work the next 4 nights and so i will miss those bouts....

[Jejima]

My take on the Ozeki....

Chiyotaikai did not look particularly great.

Kaio looked like Kaio of recent. I guess around an 8-7 or a 7-8 basho for him.

Kotooshu fought back well after a strong attack from his aite. It looks as if he has refound the fire in his belly.

Kotomitsuki did not impress me much. Lucky he had the Miyabiflobmonster as his aite today. Someone a bit younger and a bit hungrier could well have taken him today.

[Harry]

Was it just me or were there 100x more false starts than usual?

Anyways, Iwakiyama did good forward moving sumo to win, surprisingly to me too, over Tokitenku via oshidashi. When my son gets bored of playing XBOX 360 in a few hours I'll rewind the PVR and look at it again for some better notes. He looks very solid and genki. Married life must be suiting the beast as well.

[James H]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread....

I got a slightly crazed email from a DY reader alleging that Kisenosato made a hand gesture suggesting smoking a reefer to Kotooshu on Day 1. Did anyone see this or is the reader in question on the waccy baccy?

[Kintamayama]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread....

I got a slightly crazed email from a DY reader alleging that Kisenosato made a hand gesture suggesting smoking a reefer to Kotooshu on Day 1. Did anyone see this or is the reader in question on the waccy baccy?

Yes, right before he whiipped out his (Sign of approval...) .

Wacko. Foreign "fan", no doubt.

[James H]

Wacko. Foreign "fan", no doubt.

Damned furreners, ruining it for everyone else. Thank you. I thought I didn't see anything, and now I am sure. Course, it could have been the purple haze around the ring obscured my view...

BTW, completely off topic and unsure if it was posted anywhere else, but I saw Konishiki at the Kokugikan on Wednesday. Looked a bit thinner and quite well... didn't speak to him because he was with friends and family.