NAGOYA – Sumo’s first Egyptian wrestler, maegashira Osunaarashi, continued to astound on Friday, when he defeated a yokozuna opponent for the second straight day at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament.
Seemingly fixated on immobilizing Osunaarashi’s powerful right arm on the tachiai, yokozuna Harumafuji, appeared to lose sight of the big picture and lost his footing at the ring’s edge to suffer his second defeat.
Osunaarashi, whose first career meeting with a yokozuna resulted in a win over Kakuryu the day before, improved to 4-2.
Yokozuna Hakuho, who has yet to face the Egyptian surprise package, leads the field with a perfect 6-0 record after six days at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. He is joined at the top by ozeki Kotoshogiku and maegashira Takayasu. Kakuryu improved to 5-1 with a default victory due to the withdrawal of No. 2 maegashira Homasho.
Against Osunaarashi, Harumafuji charged straight ahead and wrapped up that dangerous right arm. Just when Osunaarashi was vulnerable at the edge of the ring, the yokozuna slipped.
“I intended to use my kachiage as usual, but my opponent was too quick and strong,” Osunaarashi said.
Hakuho followed Harumafuji onto the raised ring and delivered a textbook victory over Brazilian-born maegashira Kaisei (0-6).
Kotoshogiku moved to within two wins of securing his ozeki status for the next tournament with a one-sided win over komusubi Aminishiki (1-5). Should the ozeki fail to earn eight wins in Nagoya, he will wrestle in September as a sekiwake.
Ozeki Kisenosato (5-1) won a patient match against much larger komusubi Aoiyama (1-5), who had beaten him two months ago.
Veteran sekiwake Goeido suffered a bitter second loss, falling to top maegashira Ikioi (1-5) for the first time in six career bouts.
Top-ranked maegashira Homasho will miss the rest of the tournament after suffering damage to his right hamstring and right anterior cruciate ligament in his loss on Thursday to Harumafuji.
The injuries will likely require two months of outpatient treatment.
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