[sumo] Day 7 videos & torchbearer results [spoiler]

[Barbara]

I put up three videos today:

Tokitenku-Hakuhou. One of the weirdest bouts I've seen lately. Tokitenku 
does a great job here in getting to the right side of Hakuhou by holding 
H's right upper arm preventing him from easily turning. T. seems to be 
amazed that H. isn't defending himself. T. decides to continue reaching 
and pulls himself into a total okuri position. H. gives up - expecting 
the instant pushout - and it doesn't come! Are both these wrestlers 
asleep or what? While T. is dozing, H. leisurely reaches over with his 
right hand and pulls himself around, reversing the okuri. A move I've 
never seen before. Finally Tokitenku wakes up, realizes he must act now 
or say goodbye to the last of the advantage he's gained, so he pushes H. 
out for the anticlimactic win. Go home and catch up on your sleep, guys.

Kotooushu-Dejima. I'm not at all happy about Kotooushu's win here 
either. Once again he resorts to a henka! Not only that, but a failed 
henka. The freeze-frame shows that even with K's long left arm he did 
not manage to get his fingers around the vertical mawashi strap so that 
he could convert his henka into a thrust-down or a rear push-out. 
Dejima, to his credit, reads the move fast enough to begin pivoting 
before it is too late. But I'm not the only person deprecating his 
reliance on slimeball tactics - now more information about K's henkas 
comes over the sound channel. Clyde Newton: "...rather cowardly for an 
Ozeki to resort to that kind of thing." Murray Johnson: "Well, he was 
told off for it early in the tournament, by his oyakata." Good. But he 
didn't take the advice, did he?

Asashoryuu-Ama. The amazing thing about this video is to observe 
Asashoryuu's plan unfold. After his initial game is skillfully defended 
against by Ama, Asashoryuu goes to his fall-back plan. He has decided to 
win by an arm-lock throw. In the stiff-arm standoff, Asashoryuu suddenly 
goes for it - and fails! He is able to use his surging power to force 
Ama back into the clinch. Ama is tiring. Asashoryuu knows he only has to 
wait a few seconds and he will have another chance. He lunges again and 
tries for same arm, and this time Ama defends too slowly. Asashoryuu 
gains a hold and spins about. Ama is slammed to the clay with an awful 
twist to his shoulder and elbow. Two days in a row, Asashoryuu has used 
a rather cruel technique.

    The torchbearer:
Ushiomaru won the torch from torchbearer Kasuganishiki, giving 
chikara-mizu to Ohtsukasa, who won against Tokitsuumi.

    If you're not playing the Torch game, it is easy. One email is all you
   need to write.  The winner gets a complete video set of the current
   basho, all 31 hours of coverage with the English commentary, on Xvid avi
   files suitable for viewing on a computer.

   I added instructions for requesting a complete set of basho video in
  case you don't win the Torchbearer game.

   Details, pictures, videos, and explanations are at Barbara's Sumo Site,

   http://www.zyvid.com/sumo
   in fun,
   Barbara Murasakihana