Public League Leaderboard
Scores from Fantasizr.
Yusho Arasoi
9 Wins
05 Sekiwake #1 West Onosato
8 Wins
06 Sekiwake #2 East Kirishima
7 Wins
22 Maegashira #7 East Wakatakakage
24 Maegashira #8 East Endo
35 Maegashira #13 West Nishikigi
38 Maegashira #15 East Takayasu
Notable Maneuvers
Sakatottari. That would be an "arm-bar throw counter," and it explains how Takarafuji was announced the victory over Oshoma after a mono-ii. He was being thrown, and then freed his arm and sent Oshoma down a second before he himself went out.
Match of the Day
Leave it to Wakamotoharu to make Onosato work hard on Day Nine. Of course, his scrapping didn't make Onosato go backwards but had Onosato fight to swallow him up. Then the end was something odd. Onosato forced out Wakamotoharu in an ungainly, but effective manner. Possibly after stepping out, but definitely not in a way that impacted the match, Wakamotoharu got a hold of the back of Onosato's mawashi and brought him down. If the dohyo was just a little bigger, Wakamotoharu might have had the upset.
Recap
Onosato keeps going. He needed a little more than usual to beat Wakamotoharu, but he remains undefeated at 9-0. Standing astride the yusho race, the young star is asserting himself as the best rikishi in sumo. The only rikishi who is one back is Kirishima, who also won solidly but with some work over Shonannoumi. Kirishima seems to be back in his yusho-winning form. He is the biggest threats to Onosato by the numbers.
And he will get his chance to beat Onosato head-to-head on Day Ten. This seems a little early, since the two title favorites are at the same rank and could be a plausible last-day matchup. Onosato still needs to face Sekiwake Abi, as well as both Ozeki. Kirishima is in the same boat, but also needs to see Komusubi Daieisho. Onosato wins, and he has an easier path to the yusho with a two-win lead. Kirishima pulls even, and it's the results of each match we have to pay attention to. Either way, each man will see a few of the Maegahsira who are on the fringes of the yusho race.
The two-loss kept getting thinned on Day Nine as well. Hokutofuji fell to Takayasu in the one elmination match. Oshoma couldn't keep himself in against Takayasu. Most notably, Kotozakura lost to Ura without making the Pink One resort to any fancy techniques. Now the four 7-2 rikishi are Wakatakakage, Endo, Nishikigi, and Takayasu. What unites those four is some level of former glory marred by injury problems to make them slightly less certain bets. On Day Ten, Wkatakakage-Endo square off in a Darwin match. That winner, and Nishikigi or Takayasu if they keep winning, will be an Onosato or Kirishima opponent in the final few days.
A Zensho yusho, or even a 14-1 record, is rare for a reason. Winning fifteen straight is incredibly difficult, because it requires fifteen straight days of fighting well, plus getting some luck. Not only do you need a favorable step out by an opponent once or twice, you need to never slip or move just wrong. That's a long way of saying that it's fair to expect Onosato to drop at least one match and possibly two in his final six. The same is true of Kirishima, but possibly more so since he has already dropped one.
Onosato's perfect record is why any caution about Zensho yushos is necessary. He is well over halfway there and is acting the eye test. He could be so far ahead of everyone else that the yusho race isn't even a doubt on the final weekend. It's unlikely, but definitely possible. Onosato's performance has been that good over the first nine days, and the schedulers have given him a chance to further assert himself on Day Ten.
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