Grand Sumo 2025 March Tournament Day9

Yesterday, Takayasu secured a kinboshi by defeating Hoshoryu and expressed his joy, saying, "I'm having the most fun right now" and "There’s still something left to accomplish"—of course, referring to winning the championship.

From today, he faces Ozeki opponents. Against Kotozakura, who aimed to secure a right-hand inside position, Takayasu sought a left-hand inside grip. The key to Takayasu victory was successfully getting that left-hand grip. Although Kotozakura applied strong pressure from the right, Takayasu remained patient and composed.

He commented, "With years of experience, I’ve come to understand many things. Right now, I’m truly savoring the essence of sumo." It seems his spirit is even more fired up.

Onosato, who had lost three consecutive bouts against Abi, faced a crucial challenge: whether he could neutralize Abi’s morote-zuki at the tachi-ai with a sharp forward step.

However, Abi had a different plan. At the tachi-ai, he delivered a face slap, moved left, secured a left-hand uwate, and immediately went for a decisive throw. There’s no doubt that Abi had prepared this strategy in advance, practicing the sequence from the slap to the throw.

Onosato has often been caught by opponents’ left uwate-nage in the past, making this an extremely dangerous situation for him today. While his footwork wasn’t exactly smooth suri-ashi, he managed to stay with Abi’s movements well. He also bent his knees and kept his center of gravity low.

Tomorrow, Takayasu and Onosato will face off. The key will be whether Takayasu can secure his preferred left-hand shitate or if Onosato will get his right-hand shitate first. Alternatively, they might avoid a grip battle altogether and decide the match with tsuki-oshi techniques. It promises to be a fascinating bout.

Hoshoryu has already suffered three losses early in the tournament. Can he reset his mindset like he did last tournament?

At the tachi-ai, Hoshoryu attempted to deflect his opponent’s thrusting hand, likely aiming to both weaken the power of the thrusts and turn his opponent sideways to secure a grip on the mawashi. However, this strategy failed.

His losses to Chiyoshōma and Takayasu were the kind of defeats that can happen from time to time, but his losses on Day 1 to Abi and today were particularly concerning in terms of performance. He seems uncertain about how to handle tsuki-oshi specialists.

Written by 小柳公寿

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