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 The end of the March tournament is nearing and the tension is getting between the wrestlers as well as between the fans.
As of Day 10 and Day 15 of the tournament, yokozuna Asashoryu, who is seeking his 22nd tournament win since the beginning of the year, is leading the elite division of wrestlers without a loss.
He is doing well and seems to have regained his fighting spirit after his two tournament suspension.
Behind Asashoryu, two other wrestlers are seeking to catch up with him: maegashira #12 Tochiozan and the other Mongolian yokozuna, Hakuho, both with one loss.
Mongolian and Japanese sumo fans are hoping for excitement similar to the previous tournament, where a bout of two titans decided the victor of the Emperor’s Cup.
At present, Asashoryu has the advantage, but with one to three bouts remaining, anything can happen.
No other Mongolian wrestlers in the elite division has won all-eight bouts during the first ten days, with maegashira #4, Kyokutenho, currently the best among the other wrestlers besides the both yokozunas.
The sumo veteran has currently won seven bouts out of 10.
Sekiwake Ama is not doing well, having only won four bouts.
Now he has to win four of the remaining five bouts in order to retain his current ranking. If he fails to win more than eight bouts in this tournament he will most probably be demoted from his current ‘sekiwake’ ranking.
This would be a blow to Ama, who battled to regain his sekiwake title.
West maegashira #1 Kakuryu is also having difficulty, also only winning four times. These losses, however, were against higher ranked wrestlers, and he is expected to finish with a better win-loss ratio as his final bouts are against lower ranked wrestlers.
The top ranked east maegashira, Asasekiryu, has one win more than the same ranked Kakuryu.
Asasekiryu also has to do well in the remaining bouts if he wants to be promoted. Maegashira #3 Tokitenku has four wins and six losses and is having days of bad luck.
It is now almost certain that the lowest ranking Mongolian wrestler maegashira #16 Ryuo will be again demoted from the elite division to the juryo division.
While Ryuo has made serious attempts to appear again in the ranking of the elite division, he has been doing badly in recent days.
In this tournament, he has already lost more than the acceptable number to remain in the elite division, having lost eight times and only won twice.
Even if he wins all of the remaining bouts, it will be not enough to be included in the elite division as he is currently one of the two lowest ranking wrestlers.
Sumo specialists have noted that if he does well in the remaining days he will probably be given a high rank in the juryo division, which means he can be reinstated to the elite division if he wins the juryo tournament in May.
This will allow Ryuo a possible entrance to the competition in July.
During the past week, competition has been fierce….
On the tournament’s fourth day, Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho suffered his first defeat of the March tournament when he faced Aminishiki, who has the unusual nickname ‘trick supermarket’.
Right after the face off maegashira #2 Aminishiki quickly side stepped when Hakuho attacked, giving the Mongolian yokozuna a surprise loss. He clearly did not expect such a technique.
Later on that day Hakuho said, “I guess I fell for it. I understand that he wants to win, so that’s that. I thought he’d come with shoves, so I wanted to grab the front of his belt.”
The winner Aminishiki also commented on his act, “I didn’t want to let him get on the inside, so I moved to the side. I did win, but it didn’t feel good.
“I’m going to have a tough time being his tachi-mochi (swordbearer during the ring entering ceremony) tomorrow,” Aminishiki said.
Asashoryu, in comparison, had little trouble beating the former ozeki, but currently maegashira #2 ranked, Miyabiyama in the day’s final match.
Asashoryu made no mistakes against his opponent, whom he quickly pushed out of the ring to secure his win.
Kotooshu once again lost a bout and this time it was against Mongolian top-ranked maegashira Kakuryu.
Kotooshu stepped to the edge of the ring and lost.
Sekiwake Ama crushed Takekaze with a series of shoves to send the komusubi over the ridge, thereby continuing an impressive winning streak against his opponent.
This was the tenth consecutive victory over Takekaze.
On the tournament’s fifth day yokozuna Hakuho, made up for his earlier tournament loss with a quick victory over Miyabiyama.
Hakuho seemed to be cautious and used an over arm technique to beat the maegashira ranked wrestler.
Asashoryu faced maegashira #3 Toyonoshima in a later bout. He quickly won by making some powerful attacks right after the face off.
Yokozuna Asashoryu commented afterwards about the bout against the wrestler, saying that it was a tactical decision to hit hard early.
“He likes to come in low from the face off. In the end I got that solid right grip on his belt. It’s still just day 5 though. I won’t think about anything.”
Earlier, sekiwake Ama managed to win over komusubi Kisenosato who is considered to be one of the most talented Japanese wrestlers.
Ama used the frontal push down technique to secure his third win of the tournament.
On the sixth day of the tournament, yokozuna Asashoryu faced countryman Tokitenku. Asashoryu did not have to do much as his opponent slipped to the ground.
Meanwhile Hakuho had no difficulty beating Toyonoshima. He just pushed his maegashira third ranked opponent out of the ring with some powerful slaps.
Hakouho later said he was happy with his win over Toyonoshima.
“I just went with the flow. We were separated there for a bit, but I stayed on him well.”
Asasekiryu faced ozeki Chiyotaikai but he could not resist Chiyotaikai’s powerful attacks and went out of the ring.
But top maegashira Kakuryu managed to beat powerful ozeki Kaio. He quickly grabbed Kaio’s belt and pushed out.
Kakuryu said after the bout, “He’s so strong if he gets the left arm on the inside, so I decided to move away from it.”
Day Seven of the tournament saw Asashoryu crush komusubi Takekaze to remain the sole leader.
Asashoryu said he deliberately waited for the perfect time to push.
“I wanted to get on the inside of him, but I didn’t rush anything and attacked well from the side. I guess it was good sumo,” he said.
Hakuho, who has been in chasing mode, had a tough opponent in Kisenosato.
After some slaps by both wrestlers, Hakuho used the pulling under arm throw to secure his position, which he said made for a tough contest.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been this hot afterwards. His shoves really ticked me off.”
Kakuryu also had a tough opponent this time. His opponent was ozeki Chiyotaikai who is famous for his powerful attacks.
Unfortunately Kakuryu lost the day’s bout and suffered another loss while countryman Ama also lost to ozeki Kaio.
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