Coming off winning his seventh Emperor’s Cup, yokozuna Terunofuji will be the man to beat at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, which begins on Sunday, July 10.
After a sluggish start, the Mongolian-born Terunofuji closed out the Summer Basho in May with seven straight wins to finish with a 12-3 record.
The win in the previous tournament at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan marked another chapter in his remarkable comeback from injury.
The native of Ulaanbaatar overcame surgery on both knees to come all the way back from sumo’s fifth-tier jonidan division to the elite division in July 2020.
The 15-day Nagoya tournament will be the first tournament with no limits on spectator numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Terunofuji’s Title Prospects
If he is in peak form, sumo experts say Terunofuji will be hard to beat.
“It will all come down to his condition,” sumo analyst Kitanofuji said of Terunofuji in an interview with NHK. “He showed incredible resilience by coming back in the last week of the May tournament.
“He didn’t lose a bout after dropping three in the first week. That was an impressive show of sumo,” added Kitanofuji.
Terunofuji has now won three tournaments since his promotion to grand champion in July of 2021. It’s clear that when he is in good health, the 192-cm, 181-kg Isegahama wrestler is head and shoulders above the competition.
But given his past injuries, there is always a chance Terunofuji may falter, as was the case in the March tourney when he went 3-3-9 before pulling out with a sore knee and heel.
Wakatakakage Seeks Better Record
Other wrestlers are aware of that possibility and are ready to pounce, just as Wakatakakage was when he won the March tournament as a sekiwake with a 12-3 record.
Wakatakakage went a modest 9-6 in the Summer Basho and will be eager to prove that his win in March was no flash in the pan.
The Arashio stable wrestler from Fukushima has won legions of fans with his gutsy performances.
Sumo’s three ozeki wrestlers ― Takakeisho, Mitakeumi and Shodai ― will have plenty to prove in the Nagoya meet.
Only Takakeisho (8-7) was able to cobble together a winning record in the May tourney and it was nothing to write home about.
Mitakeumi (6-9) and Shodai (5-10) head into the tournament as demotion-threatened and must secure at least eight wins to avoid demotion to sekiwake.
Sumo officials will be hoping that at least one of the ozeki champions can emerge from their collective funk and challenge Terunofuji for the title.
“I hope the ozeki can produce some positive results,” Kitanofuji said. “They seem to fail to live up to expectations these days.”
Kotonowaka (right) faces Takayasu in a workout on June 15. (ⒸSANKEI)
Other Expected Title Contenders
Who else might step up to fight for the silverware? There are several candidates.
Takanosho challenged for the trophy right up until the final day of the May tourney when he lost to Sadanoumi to finish with an 11-4 record.
For his efforts, Takanosho earned his first career Outstanding Performance Prize and was promoted to maegashira No. 1 for the Nagoya meet.
Another wrestler to keep an eye on is newly promoted sekiwake Daieisho, who also claimed an Outstanding Performance Prize in the previous tournament when he won his last six bouts to finish at 11-4.
Daieisho was a komusubi in the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament and started off with a bang when he upset Terunofuji on the opening day. He has a reputation as a wrestler who can upset the top guns at any given time.
The komusubi duo of Hoshoryu and Abi, who was demoted from sekiwake, will be looking to improve on their records from the previous tournament when they went 8-7 and 7-8 respectively.
Meanwhile, rising star Kotonowaka hit a bump in the road in the May basho when he went 9-6 after back-to-back 11-4 records in the two previous tournaments.
Kotonowaka comes from sumo royalty. He is the son of former sekiwake Kotonowaka Terumasa and the grandson of Kotozakura, the 53rd yokozuna.
Impact of Coronavirus
And just a reminder that we aren’t done with COVID yet, former ozeki Takayasu and the rest of the Tagonoura stable will miss the Nagoya tourney due to coronavirus infections.
The 32-year-old Takayasu, currently wrestling as a No. 4 maegashira, was found to be infected on Tuesday, July 28. A lower-division wrestler in the stable also tested positive.
It is the second time an entire stable will sit out a tournament and the first time since January.
Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for more than 25 years. You can find his articles here.
