J6 – Shohozan obtient son quatrième kinboshi

Yokozuna Kisenosato made it six out of six and remained one of the three unbeaten wrestlers at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Friday, when Mongolian grand champion Kakuryu suffered his second loss at Edion Arena Osaka.

Kisenosato continued his solid form as he left no room for Takarafuji to counter, the new yokozuna latching onto the No. 3 maegashira’s belt with his right arm with ease and forcing out the tenacious opponent. Both grapplers came into the bout with 5-0 records.

In the day’s final match, Kakuryu (4-2) suffered his first defeat against Shohozan in their 12th bout.

The third-ranked maegashira forced the Mongolian to resort to a weak thrust-down attempt after successive strong charges to find Kakuryu struggling near the straw bales and gave another lunge to see him off the ring to pick up his first win.

Injury-plagued ozeki Terunofuji had a rare fine start to the tourney with five straight wins, but it was Takayasu who kept the unbeaten record in another bout of wrestlers with perfect records after the sekiwake barged the Mongolian out in a one-sided affair.

No. 10 maegashira Tochiozan also kept his mark unblemished at 6-0 after the former sekiwake pushed down 12th-ranked Sadanoumi (1-5) to the floor.

Yokozuna Harumafuji salvaged his fourth win, against No. 4 maegashira Yoshikaze (3-3).

The two wrestlers charged low, and Yoshikaze appeared to have pulled off a decisive pulling arm throw, but despite Harumafuji teetering and then leaning backward almost losing his footing, the rank-and-filer slipped and fell on all fours on the ring.

Sekiwake Kotoshogiku, who dropped from ozeki but can return to the rank with 10 wins here, claimed his fourth win after holding his ground against komusubi Mitakeumi (3-3) to grapple him out.

Another sekiwake Tamawashi claimed his fifth win by default against Osaka-born ozeki Goeido, the local favorite pulling out with an injured ankle with just one win in six days.

Brazilian Kaisei made his first appearance at the tourney after missing the first five days with a right knee injury, but the No. 8 maegashira was beaten by an under-shoulder swing down from sixth-ranked Aoiyama (3-3), the Bulgarian making it 11-5 to his favor in their career record.

Written by Kyodo