[sumo] More Asa training

[Sumocypher at aol.com]

>From the Yomiuri:
 
_http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20080430TDY28302.htm_ 
(http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20080430TDY28302.htm) 
 
 
Asashoryu takes charge at yokozuna practice
 
James Hardy / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter 
If practice means anything, Asashoryu has already won his 23rd Emperor's Cup. 
 
The yokozuna dominated nearly everyone he faced at Tuesday's open training  
session ahead of next month's Summer Grand Sumo Tournament, then said he was  
operating at half-power.  
"I'm still 50 percent," Asashoryu told reporters after an impressive outing  
at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. "My condition isn't that great."  
Asashoryu is carrying a left calf injury but it didn't show as he beat ozeki  
Kotooshu, sekiwake Kotoshogiku and rank-and-filers Goeido and Toyonoshima in  
front of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council and a big Golden Week crowd.  
The only man to give him any trouble was komusubi Kisenosato, who beat Asa in 
 their first meeting. The yokozuna made Kisenosato pay for his impudence with 
a  further three bouts, which the current holder of the Emperor's Cup all 
won.  
"You really can't let up against him," Asashoryu said of Kisenosato. The  
komusubi, who had fought 10 bouts against other opponents before he met the  
yokozuna, beat Asashoryu in January and looks ready to make a push for ozeki  
promotion.  
By contrast, yokozuna Hakuho's bouts were a subdued affair. The younger  
yokozuna, who was bumped sideways into the less-favored West slot in the  rankings 
for the May 11-25 tournament, lost twice--to ozeki Kotomitsuki and  
Kotooshu--in the final 10 bouts of the session.  
"I'm improving my condition," Hakuho said. "Just taking it at my pace."  
After the bouts finished, Asashoryu gave rookie Tochinoshin a special welcome 
 to the makuuchi division by lending him his chest for butsukare training.  
The 20-year-old Georgian was forced to slide the inert yokozuna across the  
ring more than five times, an exertion that left him teetering with exhaustion. 
 
"I just couldn't push him," admitted Tochinoshin, who had experience of YDC  
training as a makushita division wrestler but had not met a yokozuna before.  
"He [Asashoryu] told me to keep working hard. It felt different [going up  
against a yokozuna], but I'm just going to do my best."  
(Apr. 30,  2008)

Nobody puts  Asashoryu in a corner 

O



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