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From
the time he won his first Tenno-Hai at the 2002 Kyushu Basho, yokozuna-East
ASASHORYU (Mongolia) had never lost two tournaments in a row.
After having his history-making rensho snapped by ozeki #1-East
TOCHIAZUMA in January, the “Mongolian Express” came to Osaka’s
Prefectural Taiikukan for the 2006 Haru Basho ready to start a new skein.
He opened things with ten consecutive wins.
This was just as well:
fellow Mongolian and sekiwake-East HAKUHO was right there keeping
pace with him into day 11, when the two collided head-on.
“Sleeping Thunder” got the better of that bout to take the lead
for the Cup, but fell to AZUMA the very next day to drop back into a tie. Both
Mongolians were 13-1 steaming headlong into senshuraku.
HAKUHO was up first.
His opponent was ozeki #2-West KAIO, whose Haru books were even at
7-7 and who needed the win to avoid demotion.
The “Human Juicer” came through, forcing the younger man over
the tawara to keep his Kokugikan parking spot (and other ozeki
perquisites) for another four months.
It was now in SHORYU’s power to ‘slam the gates’ with a win,
but he would have to go through AZUMA to do it.
The Tamanoi Beya heir-apparent was not inclined to let that happen,
and proceeded to force the Mongolian over the bales.
So SHORYU and HAKUHO ascended the dohyo once more to settle
matters.
This time there was no doubt, as the sole yokozuna took firm
possession of his 16th career yusho. As
the rikishi who’d broken SHORYU’s historic win streak under the
Kokugikan roof, many were looking to TOCHIAZUMA to win in Osaka and earn
yokozuna promotion for himself.
But losses to maegashira #3-East AMINISHIKI (day 2) and komusubi-west
MIYABIYAMA (day 7) forced him into an early trailing role.
A loss to KAIO on day 11 effectively ended matters:
wins over both yusho finalists and a 12-3 mark turned out to be
cold comfort for what might have been.
Ozeki #1-West KOTOOSHU (Bulgaria) and #2-East CHIYOTAIKAI both
turned in ‘passing grade’ 9-6 efforts. HAKUHO’s 13-2 Osaka showing
capped a 35-10 record over the past three tournaments.
When the Shukun-Sho (Outstanding Performance Prize) and a share of
the Gino-Sho (Technique Prize) were added in, the result was a slam-dunk
promotion to ozeki for Natsu 2006.
Since none of the rikishi currently holding the rank are kadoban,
there will be five ozeki listed on the next two banzuke (at a bare
minimum).
Sekiwake-West KOTOMITSUKI was 6-1 going into day 7, but then won
only two of his next eight to finish right on the 8-7 kachi line.
After a long stint in the hiramaku ranks, former ozeki MIYABIYAMA
was making a reappearance in the sanyaku.
It looked as if it would be a brief stint after losing four of his
first five torikumi; but he came back with strength to win 9 of his final
10 to finish at 10-5 and a likely sekiwake slot in May.
Komusubi-East ROHO (Russia) opened with four straight defeats and
never got his “A” game into gear.
He received a thorough 4-11 thrashing and a ticket on the
‘down’ erebeta for the next time. #5-East
KYOKUTENHO (Mongolia), #11-East WAKANOSATO and #13-East KYOKUSHUZAN
(Mongolia) all posted 11-4 marks to share top honors among the maegashira.
SHUZAN also earned his second Kanto-Sho (Fighting Spirit Prize).
Other noteworthy hiramaku efforts: #6-East
KAKIZOE (9-6) #7-East
KISENOSATO (10-5) #8-East
KOTOSHOGIKU (9-6) #8-West
ASASEKIRYU (Mongolia) (10-5) #9-West
TAKEKAZE (9-6) #12-East
HAKUROZAN (Russia) (9-6) #15-East
TAMAKASUGA (9-6) #2-East
AMA (Mongolia) shared the Gino-Sho with HAKUHO.
No kinboshi were surrendered. In the Juryo, #11-East BARUTO
(Estonia) became the first rikishi in recent memory to ‘run the table’
with a 15-0 mark. (If any of
the readers know when this was last accomplished, please let us know –
Ed.) This should put the “Big Blond” on the top row of the May
banzuke. Other mentionable
second division performances: #1-West
TOSANOUMI (9-6) (updated
after Haru 2006)
* Non-Japanese Current Holders of USSF Dan Rank
Current USSF Life Members 1. Harry Dudrow
2. Yoshisada Yonezuka 3.
Jim Lowerre 4. Andrew
Freund 5. Troy Collins 6. Hiroshi Matsuzaki 7. Manny
Yarbrough (honorary) 8. Trent
Sabo 9. Packy Bannevans
10. Doug Cochran Golden Horde Rides onto DoD, Plunders Gold at SHUNBUN
2006
OK,
so three Mongolian amateur sumotori and a coach probably don’t qualify
as a “Horde” – but the way they swept down upon the “Dohyo of
Dreams” and took every gold they contested at SHUNBUN 2006 certainly had
a similar effect to the Mongol conquest of the past!
Their names were Munkhjargal Ulziibayar (“Mukii” for short),
Erdenebileg Alagdaa (“Bilgay”) and Tusjargal Tsendoj (“Tugsu”).
A lightweight, a middleweight and a heavyweight, they would take
the gold medal in every division they contested.
More importantly: they
brought an international flavor to our local tournament, and presented our
local rikishi with new technical challenges.
They also helped to fulfill the “DoD” slogan, “Build a dohyo
and they will come.” (The
DoD management extends its very special thanks to US middleweight champion
Troy Collins, who arranged to get them down to Garden Grove – “Y”.) Of
course, before we could worry about the Mongol invasion coming to SHUNBUN
2006, we had to worry about the weather and the possibility of being
rained out. With rain falling
most of the week and more predicted for Saturday, “Yukikaze” and I
were seriously considering postponing as late as Friday afternoon.
However, on the basis of the latest predictions, we decided to go
for it and tell everyone who asked to “come on down”.
Sure enough, even with rain falling thirty miles away, the skies
were clear and sunny over the “DoD”.
SHUNBUN 2006 was on! (Fortes
fortuna juvat (Fortune favors the brave) – “Y”.) With a
total of 19 competitors ranging in size from 50-pound (approx.) Shannon
Cochran to 400-pound (approx.) Steve Jimenez, it was the largest field
ever to gather on the “DoD” for a sumo event.
In fact, it was so large that “DoD” co-owner Jim “Yukikaze”
Lowerre found himself running the scoring table full-time and never did
get to wrestle a Mongolian or anyone else!
However, he did manage to take a ton of pictures – and so did
photographer Sam Tenney, who had heard about this event at last year’s
“Sumo Weekend”. The
day’s action started not with Mongolians but with little girls, novice
heavyweights and “Old Guys”. Judy
Morrow took two hard-fought matches from junior DoD yobidashi Shannon
Cochran to win our smallest division.
Her dad Art went 1-2 against Brian Condon in the Masters’
lightweight division. SCSK
newcomer Jeremy Jorgensen went 2-0 against Steve Shiflett from Oceanside
to win the Novice heavyweights – a task that would have been a lot more
difficult if brothers Wes and Jason Jones (also from O-side) hadn’t
arrived late. Finally, the
Masters’ open went to Brian, with Kurt Rightmyer and Art joining him on
the podium. The
lightweight division saw Art and Brian fight each other for a fourth time.
When the five-man round robin was complete, “Mukii” was the
clear winner with Trent Sabo in an unaccustomed second-place finish.
Trent’s OSK teammate Jovan Rushing emerged from a three-way tie
to take the bronze. With Troy on the sidelines due to
an upcoming LAPD assignment, and current California middleweight champion
Dan Kalbfleisch just a tad over the 253-pound weight limit, Doug Cochran
and “Bilgay” were tied at the end of the five-man round robin.
“Bilgay” won the tie-breaker.
Brad Sutton came in third, one win ahead of Kurt and Mando Garza. The
six-man heavyweight division of “Tugsu”, Wes, Dan, Steve Jimenez,
Steve Shiflett and Jason saw them finish in that order. After
all that, seven stalwarts eagerly lined up for slots in the open division
bracket. With “Tugsu”
nursing a sore knee, it fell to “Bilgay” to carry the Mongolian
colors.. His path to his
second gold medal of the day went through Trent, Wes and Dan (who took the
silver). Wes came back
through the repechage to best Steve Jimenez for the bronze medal. (If all three of our very honored Far Eastern guests had
entered this competition, I firmly believe they would have swept the
podium – “Y”) When it was all over, everyone agreed that SHUNBUN 2006 was the best tournament yet at the “Dohyo of Dreams”. “Yukikaze” asked for and received a moment of silence in sincere thanks for the clear, cool weather we had enjoyed. Then everyone headed home, to get rested and ready for the US Sumo Open. [back to top] [back to Sumo Shimpo home]
SHUNBUN 2006 (“Dohyo of Dreams”, Garden Grove, CA) - OFFICIAL RESULTS
Americans Sweep Gold at 2006 NZ Sumo Open
April
14th, 2006 was indeed a "Good Friday" for the American sumo
athletes who attended the 2006 New Zealand Sumo Open.
After flying into the capitol city of Wellington, the American team
of Trent Sabo (lightweight) Doug Cochran (middleweight) and Carl
Pappalardo (heavyweight) were escorted to a training session/luau style
feast (called a hunny) being held by the president of the New Zealand Sumo
Association, Martin Stirling. The raw talent and strength of the young sumotori in New
Zealand was only matched by the generosity and hospitality they showed us. The tournament was held at the town hall in
Lower Hutt and consisted of three individual events.
They were: the New
Zealand Junior Sumo tournament to determine who would represent New
Zealand at the Junior Worlds this summer in Estonia; the New Zealand Sumo
Open for the senior competitors from the United States, Australia, and New
Zealand; and a “professional wrestling” event involving some local New
Zealand talent.
After a highly-charged and exciting tournament amongst the junior-level
competitors, it was time for senior-level competition.
The three weight class divisions all included a minimum of five
competitors, while the open division consisted of seven.
Trent matched off with four very tough New Zealand competitors, but
prevailed in every match enroute to his lightweight gold medal.
Doug faced a bit tougher road.
For his first match he drew Sio Sakaria, a rising star in New
Zealand Sumo and a very tough opponent.
Doug was finally able to defeat Sio in a match which lasted
approximately two minutes. He
then went on to best Australians John Trail and Rowan Klein and New
Zealander Thomas Piper to earn the middleweight gold. Carl also had formidable opposition.
After two hard-fought opening matches he faced off against junior
heavyweight winner Mark and New Zealand’s current top senior heavyweight
contender, Andrew. In the end
Carl won out for the heavyweight gold, but Mark and Andrew left lasting
impressions on him, literally: the
bruises on his body were a sight to behold.
[back to top] [back to Sumo Shimpo home] “Dohyo of
Dreams” Becomes Film Location
When
my soulmate Lorinda and I originally gave our support to the construction
of the “Dohyo of Dreams” in 1997, we envisioned it as a focal point
for amateur sumo in southern California:
a haven where the sport could grow and flourish.
And we have been very pleased (especially in light of the SHUNBUN
2006 success) with the results of our venue’s bold statement, “Build
it and they will come”. But
then we were approached by a student film group from San Diego State
University, asking if they could use the “DoD” as a location for a
project they were developing.
At the same time, an MTV project revolving around young giant Steve
Jimenez wanted some time, while working in parallel with Kurt
Rightmyer’s “Sumo Size Me” endeavor.
Suddenly, things became very interesting (and busy) around Meade
Station. The SDSU project presented a
special problem at the outset:
they wanted to shoot a nighttime ‘dream sequence’.
And because of some scheduling snafus, they were only able to
finally arrive on site the night of Sunday, April 2nd.
You might ask, “So?”
Well, that was the night after the Daylight Savings Time ‘spring
forward’, which meant that darkness would be an hour later than it would
have been a week or so before.
Since it was a night shoot, they required lighting:
over six kilowatts worth.
We ran extension cords into the garage and the pantry, and kept the
lighting inside the house to a minimum to avoid popping a circuit breaker
at an inopportune moment.
No money changed hands:
our price for opening our home for this venture was two specific
screen credits (“Filmed on Location at:” and “Special Thanks to:”)
and a DVD copy of the finished film at the earliest possible moment. Trent Sabo had accompanied the
crew as a technical advisor, a role for which he was eminently qualified.
He blocked out a fight sequence between the “American”
protagonist and a smaller (but very aggressive) Japanese sushi chef.
As the evening went on both actors became more immersed in the
grappling aspect, and gradually stripped down to the “traditional”
level of garb (this took some fortitude, because the evening grew cooler
as time progressed).
At one point this writer and other non-production crew members were
inserted into a shot where the backs of heads were needed for an
‘anonymous audience’ feel.
When all of the needed sumo shots were finally “in the can”,
the protagonist donned Tokugawa-era samurai costume for another dream
sequence.
This one consisted of circling around our backyard orange tree,
sword at the ready, seemingly on the lookout for an unseen enemy.
By the time filming wrapped and the gear was packed, it was
midnight.
This writer accepted their thanks, saw them off, locked things up
and went in to get some sleep before work the following morning. Not
long afterwards, a video crew affiliated with MTV arrived one afternoon to
tape a practice with Steve Jimenez.
We “Shop-Vacced” the accumulated rainwater off the dohyo cover,
took the cover off, put down some sand and got busy.
“Tonkatsu” ran the practice as coach, giving instruction and
motivation to our 16-year old wunderkind.
Originally several other guys were supposed to show up, to give
Steve plenty of hitting opportunities.
But as it turned out, only Kurt and this writer were there.
So we took turns ‘in the barrel’ as sort of a tag team,
slamming into Steve and being slammed in turn.
For his part Kurt was very aggressive:
he even managed to run Steve out on a couple of occasions.
I also worked him hard; but I remained mindful that the US Sumo
Open was but a few days away and I did not want to hobble our bright young
prospect.
So I did not go as hard as a probably could have, and did not win
any of our practice bouts.
But it was a good workout for all three of us, and it gave the
video crew a lot of footage to use.
6th
US Sumo Open One
of the drawbacks of holding the US Sumo Open at the Los Angeles Convention
Center is that you never know what else will be going on there that day.
Last year we rolled into the parking structure, paid our $10 plus
tax, found a space, unloaded and went upstairs.
Not so easy in 2006! We
went early to help Troy Collins with USSF memberships.
We arrived to find that in addition to a public Lakers workout at
Staples Center and other events in West Hall, Donald Trump had a big event
going on in the South Hall! The
parking structure was full. Worse
yet, the nearby private lots wanted $40 for the day.
A good deal of driving around showed nothing cheaper than $20
anywhere close. I seriously
considered going home. We
eventually found a yellow zone on Venice boulevard west of the Harbor
freeway. I drove around some
more until I found some LA parking officers.
"Can
I park all day in a yellow zone on Sunday?"
The answer was. "Yes,
but only on Sunday." I went back and parked, loaded my mawashi bag and a box with
2,000 flyers for the United States Sumo Championships onto my cart and
began the close to 3/4 mile trudge. For
the third time in three years, I found myself trying to make sure that all
the participants that were either US citizens or residents were USSF
members. In spite of a great
deal of running around trying to chase people down, I fell short of the
mark again. But, we did
collect almost three hundred dollars in USSF dues. The
doors were supposed to open to the public at 11:30 am and the competition
was supposed to start at 12:30. Due
to the parking situation, many fans had trouble getting in, so the start
of action was delayed. After
five previous US Sumo Opens, certain fairly consistent patterns have
developed. One thing is that
you can count on some really good competition.
Also, every program except the first one has featured photos of the
people who are supposed to compete. One
thing you can count on is that a substantial number of the people pictured
(both foreign and domestic)
will be no-shows. This year:
out of sixty-four people pictured, almost half were no-shows.
This was offset slightly by some late sign-ups who weren't
in the program. You
can figure that a number of the competitors who are listed as being Afrom@
some other country (be it Japan, Bulgaria or Mongolia) actually live here
in the United States and will be coming @from@
no further away than an hour’s drive or maybe a flight across the
country. You
can also figure that the program (which this year was in full color for
the first time) will have letters of greetings from such people as the
president of the International Sumo Federation, the local LA City
Councilperson, and the Consul General of Japan. What you won't
find (with the exception of a short line in very small print giving the US
Sumo Federation sanction number) is any mention of the United States Sumo
Federation. The fact is that
someone whose knowledge of amateur sumo in this country was limited to
what they read in the program of the US Sumo Open probably wouldn't
even know that the USSF existed. After
the usual speeches and traditional Japanese dance, the competition finally
got under way with the men's
lightweight division. As
usual, the competitors were divided into pools that fought a round robin,
with the top two in each pool advancing to the semi final.
The first surprise of the day was that United States lightweight
champion Trent Sabo didn't
make it to the semifinals. When
the round robin pools were completed it was announced that Trent and one
of the Mongolian lightweights were tied with two wins apiece.
We were told that a wrestle off was needed and that the winner
would advance. Trent won this
match, but then it was announced that a mistake had been made and that the
other wrestler actually had three wins in the round robin, so Trent had
nothing to show for his win except the satisfaction of having done it. In the end, the medals in the lightweight division were swept
by two Mongolians and a Bulgarian (who actually lives in Marietta, GA). As
always, the middleweight division saw some of the best action of the day.
Of the countries that were advertised as sending teams, the only
ones that actually sent an official team were Germany and Norway.
Norwegian Odd Magnus Severinsen, who has a team bronze medal from
last year’s Worlds to his credit, beat defending champion Troy Collins
to take the gold. Ian Harris
of the Oceanside Sumo Kyokai took the bronze. The
numerically-large heavyweight division, which included defending champion
Koichi Kato and current World Open champion Torsten Scheibler of Germany,
was divided into four pools. Notable among the Americans were US Champion Kelly Gneiting,
silver medalist Carl Pappalardo, SCSK's
young giant Steve Jimenez and former North American Champion Wayne Vierra,
who was making his first appearance in several years.
The time away from competition showed, as Wayne looked rusty and
didn't
advance. Steve Jimenez (who
was being followed throughout the day by a crew from MTV) was pooled with
Koichi Kato, Kelly Gneiting and newcomer Navajo Indian Joe Gray from New
Mexico. Before the match with
Kato, we told him, "You
aren't
going to beat him, just go out and hit him as hard as you can". We had been working on having Steve come in with a forearm
rip, Kaio-style. When his
match with Kato came, Steve did exactly what we told him.
He hit Kato hard enough to rock him back some, and got a big grin
for the effort. Kato went on
to win the match, the pool and the division with Scheibler getting the
silver and Karsten Grap (Germany) the bronze. After
the preliminary rounds of the men's
divisions, it was time for women's
action. The lightweight
division was an all Oceanside Sumo Kyokai affair, with California champion
Christina Hernandez prevailing over Michelle Pike and Trent Sabo's
sister Erica. The two woman
middleweight field consisted of defending champion Hiroko Suzuki of Japan
and Mukharshar Enkhtsetseg of Mongolia, who won the best two of three.
The heavyweight division saw Erdeneochir Dolgormaa of Mongolia
prevail over Larae Crite of Oceanside and her younger sister Elizabeth
Bernier. In women's
open action, Erdeneochir defeated Larae Crite for the gold.
Mukharshar, whom Larae had beaten with a nice oshi attack, came
through for the bronze medal. The
final event of the day was the men's
open division, which was run as a single elimination bracket (win and stay
in, lose one and done). One
of the unfortunate aspects of tournaments like the US Sumo Open is that by
the time they get to the open division a lot of people have left.
This is too bad because those who leave early miss some of the best
matches of the day. Matches
like Trent Sabo's
win over German heavyweight Karsten Grap – or Steve Jimenez's
win over middleweight champion Severinsen.
That win put him one win away from a rematch with Koichi Kato; but
it never came to pass because the 390-pound youngster lost his next match
to lightweight bronze medalist Stilian Georgiev of Bulgaria.
This put the Bulgarian into the semifinal against Kato.
The resulting match saw both wrestlers go to the ground with Kato
being declared the winner. It
was the only time all day that Kato was off his feet.
In the mean time, Wayne Vierra advanced to the final with a win
over Troy Collins. In the
final, Kato threw Wayne to notch his second championship of the day and
fourth in two years. Troy
Collins took the bronze. RESULTS
of the 2006 US SUMO OPEN (Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA)
[back to top] [back to Sumo Shimpo home]
“Legendary”
Yokozuna (10+ Yusho) (updated after Haru 2006)
California Sumo Calendar for 2006 CLASSES/TRAINING SESSIONS
Fees may be charged for training session attendance. Contact the listed STAGING ORGANIZATION for latest information. COMPETITIONS
(T) = Tentative All information on this calendar is subject to change. Contact the listed STAGING ORGANIZATION for latest information. |
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