[sumo] [spoiler] Asashoryu vs Hakuho

[Lon Howard]

On May 25, 2008, at 7:44 AM, Joshua Maciel wrote:

> I was watching it live in Japan, and this is what I saw on the many  
> replays:
>
> Asashoryuu won, pushing Hakuho down. Hakuho was down, Asashoryuu  
> saw it,
> paused, and then gave a shove while he was down. The timing of the  
> pause
> looked like Asashoryuu saw that he was down, and pushed him after a  
> pause
> anyway. After the shove, Hakuho stood back up, and Asashoryuu's hand
> (unintentionally, it seemed) slapped towards Hakuho's face while he  
> was
> turning away and Hakuho was standing.
>
> At any rate, it looked like a malicious shove on Asashoryuu's  
> shove, and
> definitely didn't look Kosher. I'm sure we'll learn more as time moves
> along, but from where I was sitting, that's what it looked like...
>
> - Josh

That's what I saw too - except that Hakuho responded to the shove by  
leaning into Asashoryu as he was getting up.  Asa repsonded to that  
by starting to slap Hakuho and caught himself at the last nanosecond,  
his hand scraping Hakuho's face instead of slapping it.

Not a good show by either man, and both will at least be directly  
reprimanded.  Asa may have been 'saved' by the physical nature of  
Hakuho's response.  If he had been the only 'instigator,' it would be  
very bad for him, having done that to another yokozuna.  If Uchidate  
and Oshima Oyakata made enough noise, he may be punished anyway.

Too bad it diverted some of the attention from Osh's inspiring yusho.

- Shomishuu