Grand champion Asashoryu defeated Miyabiyama and remained undefeated at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament on Saturday, a day after clinching his 10th Emperor's Cup.
Fighting in the final bout at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Mongolian Asashoryu swatted the sekiwake wrestler down to improve to 14-0 with one day remaining in the 15-day meet. Miyabiyama, who appeared to lose his footing, dropped to 9-5.
Asashoryu won the New Year title on Friday after his nearest rivals -- Mongolian Hakuho and South Korean Kasugao -- both lost.
With his 10th title, Asashoryu joined sumo greats Kitanoumi, Chiyonofuji and Taiho as the only wrestlers to win the New Year meet for three straight years since the establishment of the six-tournament system in 1958.
If he finishes with a win on the final day, it would mark the second straight year that Asashoryu has gone undefeated in the New Year tourney.
Asashoryu won five of six tournaments last year and looks poised for another impressive run this season. He is the lone yokozuna competing in sumo.
In other major bouts, sekiwake Tochiazuma is poised for a return to the ozeki ranks after nailing down his 10th win in a bout against top maegashira Tochinonada, who fell to 4-10.
Tochiazuma, who spent much of last year sidelined with injury, wasted little time when he took control and forced Tochinonada out with a series of arm thrusts to improve to 10-4.
Chiyotaikai improved to 8-6 and wrapped up the winning record he needs to maintain his ozeki status with a one-sided win over sekiwake Wakanosato.
Wakanosato, who headed into the New Year tourney with a chance for promotion to ozeki, dropped to 6-8 and will close out the meet with a losing record.
Mongolian Hakuho barely broke a sweat and picked up an easy win when Kotonowaka lost his footing at the faceoff.
Komusubi Hakuho improved to 10-4 while No. 2 maegashira Kotonowaka was handed his 10th loss against only four wins.
Georgian-born Kokkai, a No. 3 maegashirasent fifth-ranked maegashira Takamisakari backpedaling out of the ring.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier