August 2006

Shoryu Diagnosis:  No Power Loss

The 600-Win Club

   
Shoryu Diagnosis:  No Power Loss
Wins First 14 for Number 17:  Hakuho Shows Strength
by “Yukikaze" for SUMO SHIMPO

There was perhaps a small amount of drama heading into the Aichi Prefectural Taiikukan – namely, whether the elbow injury that had forced yokozuna-East ASASHORYU (Mongolia) to ‘ride the pines’ in May would have any carryover into the 2006 Nagoya Basho.  That question lasted perhaps five days at the most, as the “Mongolian Express” won his first 14 torikumi to take hold of the Tenno-Hai for the 17th time.  There might have been some question as to whether SHORYU went all out in his senshuraku loss to ozeki #1-East HAKUHO (Mongolia).  (Takanohana (65) had been known to ‘mail it in’ on the final day if he had the Cup clinched.)  But this writer doesn’t believe SHORYU dogged that last match, for two reasons:  1) he still had a chance for a zensho yusho, and 2) he probably didn’t want HAKUHO to look too good for purposes of any future Yokozuna Deliberation Council action.  From the moment of his shonichi loss to komusubi-East (and SHORYU stablemate) ASASEKIRYU (Mongolia), HAKUHO was forced to play catch-up.  A day 9 loss to his Natsu playoff opponent, sekiwake-East MIYABIYAMA, turned out to be the difference between a playoff and a chance at the brass ring – and a 13-2 jun-yusho which (as far as the YDC is probably concerned) sends “Sleeping Thunder” back to Square One.

HAKUHO’s performance was easily the class of the ozeki contingent.  The other performances ranged from acceptable to poor.  #1-West CHIYOTAIKAI won 9 of his first 10 torikumi, but then lost his last 5 for a 9-6 mark.  That effort was matched by #2-East KAIO who was never able to establish a pattern, but who now has 660 Makunouchi Division wins:  at this rate he should move past Takamiyama’s mark of 683 next January.  This marks the second tournament in a row that #2-West KOTOOSHU (Bulgaria) has been underwhelming:  he won 6 of his first 8 matches, but could only finish with an 8-7.  Is the “Bulgarian Blastwave” in danger of becoming the “Bulgarian Bust-out”?  #3-West TOCHIAZUMA actually won his first 8 bouts to remove the kadoban that had hung over his head, but then collapsed completely to an 8-7.  These efforts may have had some of the audience reaching for their cushions to throw them in disgust – but no ozeki will be vulnerable going into the September action.

In the lower sanyaku:  MIYABI was at 5-5 heading into day 11, but then won his last 5 matches to stand tall at 10-5.  This gives him 24 wins in his last two basho at sekiwake, which places him in a very solid position to regain the ozeki rank he last held in September 2001 as a member of Musashigawa Beya’s powerful “College of Sumo Knowledge”.  (There has never been a banzuke in which six sumotori have been ranked at ozeki.)  Sekiwake-East KOTOMITSUKI fought very hard for a man who might (realistically) be out of his depth, and scratched out an 8-7 to keep treading water.  ASASEKIRYU may have derailed HAKUHO’s yokozuna hopes and helped his sempei, but that drew bad karma upon him:  he found himself where SHORYU was last basho, on the outside with an injury and finishing with an effective record of 1-2-12 – but unlike his stable brother, he will be sliding down into the hiramaku lists for the Aki action.  Komusubi-West KISENOSATO was taking it on the chin in the early going; but 6 victories in the last 7 days gave him a hard-fought 8-7 and a sanyaku paycheck for at least a couple more months.

In the maegashira ranks, rikishi from Kataonami Beya distinguished themselves:  #10-East TAMANOSHIMA posted an 11-4 mark and garnered the Kanto-Sho (Fighting Spirit Prize) while stablemate #12-West TAMAKASUGA also went 11-4 and won the Gino-Sho (Technique Prize).  Other noteworthy hiramaku performances:

#4-West BARUTO (Estonia) (9-6)
#5-West KOKKAI (Georgia Republic) (10-5)
#8-East TOKITENKU (Mongolia) (10-5)
#10-West IWAKIYAMA (9-6)
#11-East TOYONOSHIMA (9-6)
#12-East TOCHINONADA (10-5)
#13-West TAKEKAZE (10-5)
#14-East HOMASHO (9-6)

Un-noteworthy:  #3-East ROHO (Russia) was suspended for a couple of days as a disciplinary action (see Moore article in this issue for details).

There were no kinboshi awarded.  The Shukun-Sho (Outstanding Performance Prize) also was not awarded.

It may not have been as decisive as BARUTO’s zensho effort earlier in the year, but #6-East HOCHIYAMA’s 13-2 easily dominated the Juryo Division standings and will probably result in promotion to the top row for the Aki festivities.  Other notable performances among the ‘contenders for the first rank’:

#2-West KASUGANISHIKI (9-6)
#3-West ASOFUJI (9-6)
#4-East KAKURYU (Mongolia) (9-6)
#4-West SATOYAMA (9-6)
#5-East SHIMOTORI (10-5)
#3-West ASOFUJI (9-6)
#8-East OTSUKASA (9-6)
#13-West SHUNKETSU (10-5)
#14-East TAKANOWAKA (9-6)
#14-West RYUO (Mongolia) (9-6)

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The 600-Win Club

(updated after Nagoya 2006)

* Non-Japanese

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“Legendary” Yokozuna (10+ Yusho)

(updated after Nagoya 2006)

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JUNIOR DIVISION YUSHO WINNERS

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RESULTS OF 2006 CALIFORNIA OPEN SUMO CHAMPIONSHIP
(Hughes Community Centre, Claremont, CA)

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Dan Kalbfleisch Top Dog at California Open
by “Tonkatsu” for SUMO SHIMPO

July 22, 2006 saw mother Dudrow’s number one son rise early after a mostly sleepless night due to a severe attack of SRI (sumo-related insomnia) and greet the sun on his sixty-sixth birthday.  He quickly assembled himself for the drive to Claremont and the seventh renewal of the California Open Sumo Championships.  At least this morning he didn’t have to load the dohyo into his truck.  As usual, he forgot something (the waiver forms).  A quick to-go breakfast from Jack in the Box and he was on the road.

With invaluable help from Monica Ryczek, Cameron Ryczek  and Alicia, the Mount Baldy Room was quickly set up to await the ring and (hopefully) some wrestlers.  Jim Lowerre arrived and assembled the dohyo; but it had been less than a month since he’d had his appendix removed, so he would be running the scoring table this day.  There were some nervous moments in the next hour as most of the competitors were late.  Finally, eight kids, one woman and eight men answered the bell.  The 2006 California Open Sumo Championships were under way.

The action started with the children’s matches.  The Little Kids’ bracket consisted of Judy Morrow (SCSK), Shannon Cochran (GSS), and Eileen McNair and John Stowbridge (Goltz).  The bigger and a lot bigger kids were divided into two two-man pools who then also fought a four-man open division.  The first pool consisted of Cameron and Zeff Farias (both Goltz).  The second pool had Brandon Freel and Steven Simpson (both SCSK).

As the biggest kid in her group and the champion from Goltz Sumo IX and Shunbun 2006, Judy appeared to be the favorite.  But Goltz Judo girl Eileen had other ideas, going 2-0 to take the gold.  Judy was second and Shannon third.

In bigger boys’ action, Cameron took two in a row from Zeff, who was making his sumo debut.  The same pattern prevailed in the biggest boy’s pool with Steven taking a pair from Brandon, who was also making his sumo debut.  The kids’ action finished with an open division in which the four boys ranged from Zeff (85 pounds) and Cameron (90 pounds) to Brandon (142) and Steven (208).  The resulting competition was just like the All-Japan Elementary Championships where kids are matched by age and not size.  Steven took first, but Cameron came through for the silver while Brandon got the bronze.

Michelle Pike was the only entrant in the women’s competition.  As usual in such cases, Michelle had the choice of getting her entry fee back or receiving the championship medal:  she took the latter.  Just so her drive wasn’t in vain, she fought an exhibition against Steven Simpson.  Steven had a slight age advantage over Michelle, and a significant weight edge, but she finally prevailed in two well-fought matches.

Attention now turned to the men’s weight-class competitions.  With National lightweight champion Trent Sabo already in Japan training for the Worlds, it fell to runner-up Jason Gilbert to carry the Oceanside Sumo Kyokai’s colors in the lightweight division.  His only challenger was Art Morrow (SCSK).  Art, who had just been presented with his shodan certificate, hoped to show how age and treachery could prevail over youth and strength.  Art gave it a good try, but didn’t get the cigar.

The middleweight division saw current National champion Troy Collins (CSA) win one more title by besting Doug Cochran (GSS), Brad Sutton (CSA) and Kurt Rightmyer (SCSK).  Troy plans to retire after this year’s Worlds:  it will be interesting to see which member of the very strong SoCal middleweight class can ‘sumo up’ to assume Troy’s weighty mantle.

Before going to the heavyweight action, a break was taken so that Art and Kurt could contest the 40+ Masters division.  Kurt prevailed with two consecutive wins.

Three men answered the bell to challenge for the heavyweight division crown.  Last year’s middleweight champion Dan Kalbfleisch (CSA), who had deliberately packed on some poundage to ‘fleet up’, emerged from some very fierce matches with the gold medal.  Wes Jones (OSK) took the silver and Steve Jimenez (SCSK) the bronze.

After all that, seven of the eight men stepped forward for more punishment in the Open Division.  While all the other divisions of the day were fought as round robins, the Open was a single elimination with repechage.  The combination of diverse weights (from 176-pound Jason Gilbert to 425-pound Steve Jimenez), plus the luck of the bottle draw for slots on the bracket, meant that this competition would be unpredictable as always.  At first, it looked like form was going to prevail as National open champion Troy worked his way through Wes and Steve to a final against Dan, whose road had gone through Jason and Brad.  The championship saw Dan prevail over the man known as Downtown LA’s top athlete with an oshitaoshi win that came after a very exciting battle.  In the meantime, Steve found himself faced with yet another match with Nationals nemesis Wes in order to earn a match with Brad for the bronze medal.  This time Steve prevailed, sending Wes crashing out of the ring for an oshitaoshi win.  This set up the final match of the day between Steve and Brad, each of whom had had an MTV film crew following them the whole time.  So in effect, they were not only fighting for the bronze medal but the un-official MTV championship to boot.  When the smoke cleared Brad had the bronze medal – and MTV had some great footage.

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CALIFORNIA WINNING…The adult medalists in this year’s California Open Sumo Championships gather for a group picture.  From left:  Kurt Rightmyer, Troy Collins, Brad Sutton, Dan Kalbfleisch, Steve Jimenez, Art Morrow, Jason Gilbert, Michelle Pike and Wes Jones.  (Photo:  “Yukikaze”)

<< DON’T MESS WITH US KIDS, WE BE TOUGH…The juvenile medalists in this year’s California Open Sumo Championships get together.  Front row:  Eileen McNair, Shannon Cochran and Judy Morrow.  Back row:  Cameron Ryczek, Steven Simpson and Brandon Freel.