Mongolian sumo wrestlers continued to train this week, in preparation for the upcoming March grand sumo tournament.

In a busy period for sumo wrestling, official rankings were released this week as intense pre-tournament training began.

As previously reported, yokozuna Asashoryu had a dispute with the Japanese media when he returned back to Japan. While it was reported that Asashoryu verbally abused the press, he staunchly denied that he said something “bad” to the journalists.

On February 28, Isenoumi, the Director of the Sumo Association’s Educational Guidance Division, commented publicly that the Japan Sumo Association has no interest in investigating the matter or in punishing Asashoryu.

“We know that his stable master has already talked to him, so the Association’s stance is that we’re not going to make a big deal out of this.

“He said that he didn’t say it. We can’t base anything off of a he-said she-said incident,” Isenoumi said.

Isenoumi also defended Asashoryu’s appearance in public wearing an aloha shirt: “In Hawaii that’s considered as formal attire.”

Yokozuna Ashashoryu, whose real name is D.Dagvadorj, started his pre-basho intense training at the Sakaigawa stable last week.

Fighting against Goeido, Toyohibiki, and a visiting Homasho and Tochinonada, the yokozuna was flawless and ended the session with a remarkable 16-0 mark.

This was Asashoryu’s first practice with higher ranking wrestlers since the end of the New Year’s tournament. The hardest point in the session was that he was turned around by Tochinonada, but then Asa quickly spun back in time to pull of the come-from-behind win.

While Asashoryu described his performance as “so-so”, it was relatively good, his stable master Sakaigawa said.

“I think he’s been doing a lot of training. He looked winded there at the end, but his movement is already good and he’s just begun.”

Asashoryu won 18 of the 20 bouts he faced the following day.

In a more entertaining bout, the Mongolian wrestler was first beaten by Tochiohzan using the oshi-taoshi technique.

Ashashoryu then demanded an immediate rematch, where he pushed his competitor out of the ring with such force that Tochiohzan flew into the chairs dedicated for visitors. “That was okay keiko. I just want to keep upping the pace as I go,” Asashoryu said following the victory.

He then offered advice for the stable’s new hope, Goeido, who injured his calf during training.

“The more pushups you do the stronger you’ll be able to pull up at your opponents,” he said.

After the training session Asashoryu gave a short speech to the approximately 1,100 fans gathered. “I love Osaka,” he said using the famous Osaka dialect. “The fans here are the best. I still feel the pains of last year’s basho, so I am going all out to win this one.”

The other Mongolian champion sumo wrestler, Hakuho, was also completing the pre-basho intense training last week, and happened to meet up with visiting countryman, Ama.

Hakuho fought a total of 15 bouts, three of those against the much-feared Ama.

After winning all of the matches against sekiwake Ama, Hakuho said he was satisfied with his training.

“I’m glad I met up with him. It was a good training. I feel as if my conditioning is improving, but we’ve still got a ways to go.”

Kumagatani, the stable master who watched the session, said, “He can do it this basho. The last tournament changed him. He no longer gets agitated.”

Yokozuna Asashoryu visited the Naruto-beya on Sunday as promised, for training and to pay a visit to Kisenonsato, who beat him at the last basho.

Asashoryu fought against Kisenosato and Wakanosato 20 times winning 16 of them. Asashoryu dominated a majority of the bouts from the face off going 11-3 against Kisenosato.

In the first bout, Asashoryu wrenched Kisenosato back, lifted him up, and defeated him using the tsuri-dashi technique but Kisenosato did not gave up and won three times against the yokozuna.

Asashoryu, who will likely draw Kisenosato on day 1 of the tournament, commented after the training, “He’s looking good. He’s become a lot stronger.”

The yokozuna did 5-1 against Wakanosato who is also a feared wrestler in the sumo elite division.

In the yokozuna’s 19th bout of the day, Wakanosato caught Asashoryu in the chin with a perfect face off that actually caused Asa to briefly lose consciousness.

Asashoryu did stay on his feet but was forced back in the easy win for Wakanosato.

“He hit me square on the chin, and everything just went white,” Asashoryu explained afterwards.

Hakuho trained in another stable on the same day, and while no concrete results from the session were made public, the yokozuna said he was satisfied with his preparation.

“My attacking was good and so was my defense. I also had some long battles out there,” Hakuho said.

Hakuho’s mentor, Kumagatani-oyakata, agreed. “I think he’s really coming along well. He never lost his breath out there.”

Mongolia’s two champions are training intensely and focusing on winning the Emperor’s Cup.

The UB Post

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