Asahi: Mongolia's Asashoryu more than deserving grand champion

["Rowan Klein" <rowanchan@hotmail.com>]

http://www.asahi.com/english/sports/K2003020300363.html

Man About Sports: Mongolia's Asashoryu more than deserving grand champion

Don't call Asashoryu a ``circumstantial yokozuna.''

MAS doesn't want to hear about how sumo's newest grand champion ran 
roughshod over a sanyaku-depleted field to gain his promotion.

Sure, the fiesty Mongolian didn't have to fight yokozuna Takanohana and 
Musashimaru or ozeki Chiyotaikai, Kaio and Tochiazuma en route to his second 
straight 14-1 tourney title. However, if you do some checking you'll find 
that three of the last four yokozuna have also benefited from similar highly 
favorable circumstances.

*Takanohana received a big break in not having to fight any of the plethora 
of sanyaku performers from his own Futagoyama beya. You don't think not 
having to battle with Wakanohana, Takanonami, Akinoshima, Takatoriki and 
Misugisato-all in their prime-every basho didn't help Taka run up his string 
of yusho that earned him his yokozuna roping?

*In the majority of Musashimaru's yusho, either Takanohana or Akebono was 
absent and Maru didn't have to fight any of the sanyaku performers in his 
own Musashigawa stable (Dejima, Miyabiyama, et al) resulting in a 
not-as-challenging path to grand champion.

*Wakanohana, too, was able to notch back-to-back tourney titles with the 
help of not having to fight his brother Takanohana & Co., and catching 
Akebono during his knee travail days or not at all.

Only Akebono faced a full slate of top caliber foes basho in, basho out. It 
is MAS's opinion that Ake doesn't receive near enough credit for his 
extremely hard earned 11 yusho. Maybe he would be nearer Maru's total of 12 
titles and Takanohana's 22 if the jumbo Hawaiian, too, had a ticka ticka 
tick of good timing, as the old rock 'n' roll song goes.

Yep, timing is everything in life, sumo included. So, just call Asashoryu an 
opportunist-as were those other three yokozuna.

Carpe diem, baby -Asa merely seized the day. And he seized it in style.

When Asashoryu faced the big guns remaining over the last three 
days-Kotomitsuki, Wakanosato and Musoyama-he smoked them.

``No one's sumo is even anywhere near his level,'' said an admiring 
Azumazeki Oyakata, stablemaster of Akebono.

Asashoryu performs with verve and panache. He is tough, quick and decisive 
in his movements. He has an amazing ability to instantly recognize an 
opening, get a grip and quickly dispatch his foe-be it by force out, arm 
throw, leg trip or some type of combination maneuver.

``He gains an advantageous grip faster than any rikishi in a long time,'' 
said Azumazeki, ``maybe all the way back to (yokozuna) Chiyonofuji.''

The panache part comes in the form of the Mikhail Baryshnikov-type poses he 
often ends up in-just after twirling a foe down or deftly depositing him on 
his tush with a combo trip.

We're talking about a ferocious elegance here.

One senses that Asashoryu will not follow the path of another lightweight 
yokozuna Wakanohana (131 kilograms) and have his career shortened as a 
result of reaching grand champion.

Many sumo pundits feel Waka could have continued for another four or five 
years had he not caught lightning in a bottle and reached sumo's ultimate 
rank, which requires yusho contention each time out or retirement.

Asashoryu, at 137 kg, appears to have more of a chance at emulating another 
small yokozuna-Chiyonofuji, who averaged around 133 kg, but still managed to 
rack up 31 yusho.

Asashoryu, at 22, would seem to have time, as well as timing on his side. 
Special to The Asahi Shimbun(IHT/Asahi: February 3,2003)






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