Wakatakakage Beats Shonannoumi to Go 3-0: 'I'm Wrestling With Good Nerves'
West Juryo 5 Wakatakakage (Arashio), 31, beat West Juryo 6 Shonannoumi (Takadagawa), 28, by yorikiri on Day 3 to start 3-0, Nikkan Sports reports. He hit from below at the tachi-ai and rode his opponent's pull to drive him out. 'I was conscious of attacking from below. I'm focused, and I'm wrestling with good nerves so I can do my own sumo,' he said. Shonannoumi false-started once without putting his hands down, but Wakatakakage said, 'Nothing changes. Just focus.'
He won his second makuuchi title in May, then before the July basho was diagnosed with compartment syndrome in his left leg and had emergency surgery on the thigh, four operations in all; had treatment been delayed, he might have lost the leg. Back after two full absences, in his first basho in four months, Nikkan says he is in a class of his own in juryo. 'I'm getting a lot of cheers, so I want to do sumo that lives up to the expectations.'