This tournament is providing so many twists and turns that it’s hard to keep up. Exits, returns, upsets… this Nagoya basho has been extremely compelling. And it’s also great to see largely unheralded wrestlers do so well.
I know sumo is designed to be a sport that celebrates dominant champions, but I can’t help but smile when an underdog comes through. And, right now, it looks like we might be seeing a few of those underdogs hanging around and having a say in who wins this whole thing.
My Day 5 results and analysis are available here on BE (link). Lots of gifs in this one, showing some of my favourite matches from the day (Oho vs. Ura and Gonoyama vs. Koetoeko, especially).
Hope you’re having as much fun with this as I am.
Bonus gif focuses on one of the moments of the tournament.