So we have reached the end of the Nagoya tournament and what a
tournament. The yusho race has been a battle between Hakuho and
Terunofuji. Both are at the last day with 14 wins and no losses. We
have seen the bizarre bouts between the yusho chasers and Tobizaru.
Truely odd with Tobizaru trying to keep out of arms reach from either
and ended up head butting instead. Tobizaru has failed to live up to
his name (flying monkey) and only went past the judges a couple of
times. He did send Tamawashi flying with a great right handed belt
throw today though.
Alongside Hakuho and Terunofuji, there have been some good double
digit winning records with Tamawashi, Kotonowaka, Ichinojo, Ura and
Horshoryu.
All of these are ones to watch and it is nice to see some good win
records. Ura returned back to Makuuchi (top division) after suffering
injury a couple of years ago and is showing why he belongs there.
Ichinojo has done better than expected. He cannot be called a Snorlax
on this tournament's performance. Some great wins and hopefully a
special prize is coming his way. Horshoryu has proven himself a
curious performer with great technique and heart. There have been some
interesting bouts and wins pulled from the edge of defeat. Besides,
how can you not be impressed when you see someone toss Ichinojo, a
200kg beast like a rag doll?
On the other end of the performance scale, we see Tochinoshin fading.
He had a truely awful start but seems to have redeemed himself in the
latter half to get a 7-8 kache-koshi (losing record). Wakatakakage
suffered from his first time at Komosubi. Not surprising but a little
disappointing.
There were lots of darwin matches where the winner gets their
make-koshi (winning record) and the loser get their kachi-koshi
(losing record). Shodai and Takayasu found theirselves in this
position. Well Shodai clinched it and avoided being at risk of
demotion. It was a comical shoving and spinning match.
So who won the battle of the yusho? Was it Hakuho, returning for his
first full tournament in a year, or Terunofuji, winner of the past 2
yushos and looking for another to get promotion to join Hakuho as a
Yokozuna? They faced one another, both strapped up with supports on
ailing joints, both with the determination to be the winner. Lots of
mind games to be the last to make noise, lots of staring each other
out during the set up phase. Hakuho throws a sloppy decoy slap but
then puts elbow to face instead. They grapple, slaps galore, end up in
a belt grip deadlock, quickly escape. Fierce quick action going on.
Crowd cheers, whoops, gasps and ooos regardless of their requirement
to only clap. Then suddenly Hakuho lost his grips on Terunofuji's
belt. Terunofuji has just his right hand on Hakuho's belt. Hakuho
seems to deflect all of Terunofuji's attempts to use that belt grip.
Then suddenly Hakuho flips Terunofuji to the ground and wins his 45th
Yusho. A remarkable achievement. The wrestler with the second most
yusho is Taiho (retired) who won 32. The look on Hakuho's face will
get him into trouble for not showing sufficient restraint but who can
blame him? Just 4 months after knee surgery he dominated the
tournament. The reaction of the Yokozuna council will be interesting.
Will they ask for more? Will this be Hakuho's last tournament? The
question of Terunofuji's promotion to Yokozuna will also be pressing.
Typically a wrestler needs 2 yusho as an Ozeki to be recommended for
promotion. This can include 'yusho winning behaviour' too. There have
certainly been Yokozuna who have only won a single tournament.
Terunofuji certainly has shown the spirit, technique and power to be a
good Yokozuna and with his winning record, it would be a crime to not
promote him. We shall see what happens on Wednesday when the Yokozuna
council normally meet.
A brilliant basho with some good twists and turns. Yes it was clear
that only 2 people were in the yusho race but it was a fantastic final
match to decide the winner. Time to watch it again I think!
