Grand champion Asashoryu of Mongolia bounced back to defeat Tokitenku yesterday, the third day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.
Asashoryu came bursting out of the blocks and sent winless top maegashira Tokitenku out in a matter of seconds to improve to 2-1 in the 15-day tourney at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
On Monday, Asashoryu crashed from the ring and from any hope of an all-win return at the New Year tournament after a spectacular defeat at the hands of rank-and-filer Kisenosato.
PHOTO: AP/KYODO NEWS
The No. 1 maegashira grappled briefly with the Mongolian champion, who was competing for the first time in five months, before flipping him around and sending him hurtling out of the ring.
Asashoryu, winner of 21 tournament titles, was coming off a two-tournament ban for playing a charity soccer game in Ulan Bator last summer while skipping an exhibition sumo tournament in Japan.
He claimed he was injured.
It was one of the harshest punishments ever meted out to a grand champion, and he will be looking to restore his tarnished image in the New Year meet.
Asashoryu won on opening day, but lost to Kisenosato on Monday, raising concerns that he hasn't regained his form after a five-month layoff.
Yesterday's one-sided win over Tokitenku will silence his critics for at least 24 hours.
In the day's final bout, grand champion Hakuho of Mongolia improved to a perfect 3-0 when he got a hold of Toyonoshima's belt and calmly threw the No. 2 maegashira off the raised ring to stay tied for the lead with rank-and-filers Aminishiki, Futeno and Kyokutenho.
Hakuho won the Kyushu tourney in November and is Asashoryu's most significant rival in the New Year tourney.
In other major bouts, Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu spun Mongolian Ama around at the faceoff and waltzed the sekiwake out to improve to 2-1. Ama dropped to 1-2.
Kotooshu needs a winning record in this tourney to maintain his ozeki status for the next meet.
Ozeki Chiyotaikai suffered his third straight loss when he was overpowered by komusubi Dejima, who improved to 1-2.
Veteran ozeki Kaio sent Miyabiyama off the raised ring with a series of arm thrusts to improve to 2-1. No. 2 maegashira Miyabiyama fell to 1-2.
No. 3 maegashira Goeido improved to 1-2 when he shoved out Kotomitsuki to upset the ozeki wrestler, who dropped to 2-1.
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