Day 7: Kirishima Slips Hakunofuji and Forces Him Out for a Fourth Straight Win Despite a Sore Wrist
Ozeki Kirishima (Otowayama) hit Hakunofuji (Isegahama) hard, slipped him with a quick sidestep, took the left uwate and forced him out to stay at one loss with his fourth straight win. 'I was able to focus properly, one bout at a time,' he said; against a man he led 5-3, 'he tries all sorts of things, so I believed in what I had to do' (Sports Hochi, Jiji Press). According to his stablemaster Otowayama (ex-yokozuna Kakuryu), Kirishima has pain in his right wrist, but it did not show. 'It's a long way from here,' Kirishima said (Jiji Press). Of the shared lead: 'I don't think about it much' (Sports Hochi). Hakunofuji is 2-5.
Hakkaku: 'Never in danger. His left uwate was clamped so tight that Hakunofuji couldn't turn his arm' (Sports Hochi). In his Sports Hochi column, former ozeki Kotokaze wrote that Kirishima's spirit is not broken after his tsuna-tori run fell through: he went 12-3 three straight times, then 8-7 at Aki. He has the best consistency in makuuchi, built on heavy training, and is the closest man to yokozuna. 'He needs to believe in himself.' A Jiji Press photo shows the force-out.
Sources: Yahoo! Japan Sports (Sports Hochi) · Yahoo! Japan Sports (Jiji Press) · Yahoo! Japan Sports (Sports Hochi / Kotokaze) · Yahoo! Japan Sports (Jiji Press photo)