Struggling grand champion Musashimaru overwhelmed Kotomitsuki on Friday in a must-win showdown at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
Fighting in the final bout at Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Mus-ashimaru got both arms around the top maegashira and calmly lifted his opponent out to improve to 3-3. Kotomitsuki dropped to 1-5.
After six days of the 15-day tourney, ozeki Tochiazuma and lower-ranked grappler Hokutoriki share the lead at 6-0.
Musashimaru has missed all or parts of the last six tournaments due to an injured left wrist. A fourth loss on Friday would have put the injury-plagued yokozuna in an awkward position with calls for his retirement mounting.
In other major bouts, grand champion Asashoryu, who won the Autumn tournament and is gunning for his fifth title, got a right-hand grip of Miyabiyama's belt right after the face-off and lifted the lumbering No. 4 maegashira out over the straw ridge to remain one win back of the leaders at 5-1 while handing Miyabiyama his third loss.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday said that she hoped she would be able to play tennis under the Belarusian flag after the International Olympic Committee lifted its ban on the country’s athletes competing in the Olympics. World No. 1 Sabalenka has had to compete under a neutral banner as a consequence of her country’s support for Russia following its ally’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC earlier on Thursday lifted its ban on Belarusian athletes competing in the Olympics, although restrictions on Russian athletes remain in place. Asked whether the women’s tour would drop the ban on her representing her country, Sabalenka said:
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying
Real Madrid announced on Friday they had fined Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde 500,000 euros (US$588,000) each after a training ground clash that saw Valverde transported for medical care. The club did not impose any sporting sanctions on the two players, saying in a statement that the fine “thereby concludes the internal procedures” launched against them. Valverde is going to miss today’s Clasico against Barcelona as a result of the head injury he suffered during the altercation. The club said he would be out for up to two weeks. Tchouameni took part in training on Friday and could feature at Camp
RSS