Spring is in full glory, although moving closer to the annual rainy season, and we get to celebrate the arrival of not only good weather but the debut of two new sekitori, along with two returnees to the paid ranks of sumo!
Our first debut did it in brilliant style at Osaka basho, but posting a perfect 7-0 record, taking the Makushita championship and moving out from behind the curtain, at Makushita East 7, to put on the silk mawashi for the very first time. Kizenryu, formerly known as Kamei, hails from Kise-beya and will be fighting in Juryo this tourney. With both sumotori sitting at 6-0, Kizenryu had to defeat Takakiho to secure his perfect 7-0 record.
Kizenryu debut back at the Haru 2008 basho. At the beginning of his sumo journey, he skyrocketed to Makushita but putting together a 20-1 record over 3 tournaments. But then he hit a wall, and sat in Makushita for 3 years. But in 2012, he got things moving upwards again with 5 kachi-koshi out of 6 tourneys. At 28 years old, he still has some mileage left and we should enjoy him in Juryo for a few years.
Our other debut is from Kokonoe-beya, Chiyoo, who posted 5-2 from the rank of Makushita West 5. Chiyoo entered the dohyo for the first time in March 2010. Chiyoo will join his stable mates, Chiyootori & Chiyoarashi in the paid ranks, bringing Kokonoe oyakata's sekitori total to 4, since Chiyotairyu and Chiyonokuni are in Makuuchi.
On the other side of things we have two sumotori returning to Juryo. First is the just mentioned Chiyoarashi, who posted a 6-1 record, fighting at Makushita East 4. Originally promoted to the paid ranks for the Aki basho in 2011, he only fought in Juryo for 2 tournaments, before dropping down to Makushita for all of 2012. But after missing the New Year's entire 2012 tourney, he posted consecutive kachi-koshi to return to the paid ranks. It seems that Chiyoarashi is a healthy inter-beya rival of Chiyonokuni. Hopefully the success of Chiyonokuni will push Chiyoarashi to continue his climb up the banzuke.
Finally our last returnee is Kitaharima from Kitanoumi-beya, who notched a nice 5-2 record fighting from Makushita East 1. Kitaharima broke into Juryo for the first basho of 2012 and fought in Juryo all of 2012, but 3 make-koshi in a row dropped him behind the curtain. In response, he has posted 2 consecutive kachi-koshi to return to Juryo. Kitanoumi oyakata will be pleased that he now has 3 sekitori, with Kitaharima joining Nionoumi in Juryo and Kitataiki in Makuuchi.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
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