Dohyo Diver

[Kashunowaka]

Does anyone keep track of Tosanoumi's record number of consecutive dives? He must be closing in on that now. (Applauding...)

[aderechelsea]

i just saw Tosanoumi's bout and Asanowaka's bout for day 3 ........

i cannot decide who is more pathetic........... :-)

[Kaikitsune Makoto]

Does anyone keep track of Tosanoumi's record number of consecutive dives? He must be closing in on that now

He did lose with hatakikomi to Tamanoshima on senshuraku in Hatsu so 4 is the magic number now. He doesn't look just inbalanced but also quite powerless in his usual tachi-ai drive.

Tosanoumi has a real bad era going. He was 4-11 in Hatsu and one win came as fusensho so basically his last 17 bouts have gone 3-14 (one of the wins against pulling Taikai (I am not worthy...) )

[aderechelsea]

one of the wins against pulling Taikai :-P

(I am not worthy...)

i never expected to see someone refer to Chiyo like that.......

(i believe he hasn't pushed any of his opponents a single step backwards yet ....)

maybe he is taking a major step in his career.He is trying to immitate Kyokushuzan......... (Sigh...)

[Naganoyama]

pulling Taikai

3 hatakikomi wins so far this basho. He should be ashamed to go back to his heya!

[QttP]

3 hatakikomi wins so far this basho.  He should be ashamed to go back to his heya!

That's 4 hatakikomi wins, if you didn't pay attention.

Should he really be ashamed? I don't think so. He's injured and can't generate pushing power because of that. Chiyotaikai's tachiai is his winning card, and so far he's managed to win 4 straight with no help from that card whatsoever. As his fan, I don't feel disappointed with his performance, but rather worried, because I know that he won't be able to go too far like this. I'd be content with a simple kachi-koshi this tournament, but I'm not sure it's gonna happen. He still needs 4 wins, and opponents are only going to get tougher. At some point they're bound to understand that to beat Chiyotaikai this basho all they need to do is patiently hold their ground. Taikai himself said that if he feels he just can't, he'll go kyujo. At this point I'd say there's about 50-50 chance for it to happen.

Edited March 17, 2004 by QttP

[Naganoyama]

Hey I'm quite a Taikai fan too and I'm ashamed. He said something about doing the honourable thing and going kyujo if his fitness was not there. I understand why he's doing it but I just don't like to see him pulling.

(Shaking head...)

BTW I have hatakikomi, kotenage, hatakikomi, hatakikomi

[QttP]

There's kotenage and there's kotenage, if you know what I mean. That particular kotenage was nothing but a hatakikomi, if you watch the bout.

Normally I wouldn't want to see Taikai pull, at least not like that. But given his condition, I see no particular reason for him to be ashamed. He doesn't resort to henka or anything. He just says: here I am, here's what I'm gonna do, now try to avoid it. Dejima, Kyokutenho and Miyabiyama, despite all their strength and experience, couldn't. So what's the problem? The problem is that pretty soon someone will.

Speaking of which, Kyokushuzan tomorrow is probably the easiest foe they could have given Taikai. Normally, he'd blast through him like he wasn't there. But Kyokushuzan is not the guy you can slap down, so it may turn out to be the most difficult matchup yet.

[Naganoyama]

Actually I take back what I said. Thinking about it a bit more logically, he has a need to keep his rank and a win is a win. I find it very frustrating when the ozeki keep going kadoban so I should be grateful to see them win. Also I don't much like the effect on the basho when half the ozeki are kyujo. Hatakikomi just isn't very pretty for an ozeki.

I don't actually believe it is more honourable to withdraw than try and compete. It was just that that was what he said and I didn't think about it much.

So thanks for your persistence. I feel persuaded.

(Having downloaded the bout, I see what you mean about the kotenage. You can grab any part of the body and pull. It might just as well be from the kotenage grip. Perhaps hikiotoshi would have been a better kimarite.)