Monday, June 7, 2010

Behind the Curtain - July 2010

The summer heat is growing every day which means that it's time for the beach and time to take the bullet train down to Nagoya for the Nagoya Basho. This hot summer tourney we have two men stepping out from behind the curtain, along with two other reappearing in the paid ranks.

Fighting at Makushita #2 East, Kaisei notched a nifty record of 5-2 at the Natsu basho to earn his silk mawashi this tournament. Kaisei is a 23-year-old Brazilian, who is 3rd generation Japanese and fights for Tomozuna stable. He is the fourth Brazilian to make the paid ranks.

Battling at Makushita #5 East, Sadanoumi recorded 5-2 to get promoted. He is another 23-year-old and is the son of former Komusubi Sadanoumi. When he heard that he was going to be shin-juryo at Nagoya, "My body started to shake! I wanted to become ana rikishi since I was 4." Sadanoumi has been trying very hard from the beginning of his sumo career, to gain weight, eventually adding 40 kilos to his frame. Every evening and night he trained alone with weights, never missing a session, and the fact that it finally brought about a result has him very happy and proud.

Listed the last tourney at Makushita #1 East, Masuraumi squeezed back to Juryo with a 4-3 result at Tokyo. He is 21-year-old and belongs to Onomatsu stable. You may recall from our March article, he is an undersized wrester, who failed the first physical exam cause he was too short but passed the newly created secondary physical exam. This year, his two Juryo tournaments have resulted in a pair of 7-8 records, so he needs just a little bit more effort to pull off his first kachikoshi as a sekitori. This could be the tournament.

Finally, having fought from Makushita #1 West, Hochiyama, posted a respectable 5-2 make a return to the paid ranks. He is 28-years-old from Sakaigawa stable, who has been all the way up to Makuuchi. Hochiyama has been behind the curtain for over two years, clawing his way back up the banzuke. His fall in the ranks was due to diabetes. He got the strength he needed to make a recovery and a run back to the paid ranks from his family back in Aomori and his supporters. They were a key factor in his rehabilitation and return.

With these 4 wrestlers take slots on the banzuke as sekitori, 4 other wrestlers will have to fall back behind the curtain to clear space.

Futeno at Juryo West #12 was 6-3 at the end of day nine but then lost 6 days in a row to end with 6-9 and an appointment with his old white cotton mawashi.

Kirinowaka at Juryo East #13 managed only 2 wins on days eight and nine to post a horrible 2-13 and a ticket to the makushita division.

Kaiho at Juryo West #14 won only 3 times to finish at 3-12 and step behind the curtain for July.

Sadanofuji at Juryo East #14 lost on the final day to Bushuyama to just miss getting his 8th win and will be in the unpaid ranks this summer.

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