[sumo] Sumo World Championships Day One

[h.gilbert@auckland.ac.nz]

As katrina suggested, I have written a wrap-up of both days that I posted on 
SumoForum a couple of days ago. I just got back from Germany today so I'll 
post them and let Katrina (and others) give more informed comment.


Well, here is a fresh off the dohyo report from the World Championships in 
Riesa. Things ran behind time today, and the day was extended slightly longer 
than the planned 12 noon to 9.30pm. Having turned the scheduled 2 hour break 
into only about 30 mins, that?s a lot of sumo in a day. Part of it was the 
opening ceremony, held before the finals of the men?s and women?s lightweight, 
middleweight and heavyweight competitions this evening. Tomorrow will see the 
appearance of the teams competition and the men?s and women?s open weight 
competitions, and then it is finished off with a closing ceremony and a big 
party for those involved. Should be a late one as the shuttle buses are 
scheduled to go until 2am.

But, let?s focus on the sumo. There are 26 countries competing here, and a 
couple of other member associations that couldn?t/didn?t send members (I am 
the New Zealand representative as an official but we have no wrestlers for a 
couple of reasons). All 26 countries are fielding a men?s team and 16 
countries will have a women?s team. 

Each country is allowed one individual representative in each of the four 
weight classes. Usually they back up and compete in the teams event as well, 
but some teams have come with a large contingent that includes just some who 
are only competing in the individual events, and others only in the team 
event. There are also a few reserves for some of the teams, as one is allowed 
for each country in the team competitions. Germany for example has 12 
competitors registered (excluding coach and support staff), Japan 11, Hungary 
and Russia both have 10. 

As you can imagine, this makes for a colourful event, with plenty of different 
team tracksuits, different languages, and quite an international feel. Plenty 
of the wrestlers know each other from other competitions and there is a 
generally friendly atmosphere. There is plenty of helping up the opponent, 
shaking hands after a bout, and general respect for the efforts of all the 
competitors. There is the occasional bit of dissent when a competitor believes 
they won/did not step out etc but there is not much they can do when the 
result is announced and none of the shimpan want to have a mono-ii. On the 
language situation, there are continuous announcements of competitors and 
results, as well as various notices in German and English (the latter being 
Katrina Watts who has toiled all day without a break). Interestingly, the 
calls for the judges to assemble for the next change are all in Japanese, even 
though not all the shimpan and gyoji are Japanese. I also thought that they 
didn?t refer to the gyoji as such in amateur sumo, but that is the term 
everybody is using.

Now to today?s results in the order that they occurred. For each contest there 
were 3 preliminary bouts for each competitor and from that the top 8 went 
through to the knock-out round. If there were ties that meant more than 8 were 
eligible then they had a playoff to see who went through. Once the finalists 
were found there was a repecharge series to find the two bronze medallists. 
This occurs by matching the semi-finalist and quarter-finalist who were beaten 
by each finalist on either side of the draw. So, if you lost in the semi-final 
you didn?t automatically receive the bronze, but met the person who your 
opponent had beaten previously. That way you are supposed to have earned your 
medal rather than getting the luck of the draw. Anyway, these should appear 
before the newspapers if everything goes well. 

Women?s Lightweight (12 starters)

1.	Alina BOYKOVA (Ukraine) 19yrs; 65kgs
2.	Tamami IWAI (Japan) 22yrs; 60kgs
3.	Nelli VOROBIEVA (Russia) 25yrs; 66kgs
3.	Ewelina LASECKA (Poland) 25yrs; 65kgs

Men?s Lightweight (24 starters)

1.	Vitaliy TIHENKO (Ukraine) 21yrs; 85kgs
2.	Claudio Haruo IKEMORI (Brazil) 25yrs; 84kgs
3.	Artur MICHALKIEWICZ (Poland) 27yrs; 85kgs
3.	Igor KURINNOY (Russia) 32yrs; 86kgs

Women?s Middleweight (16 starters)

1.	Svetlana PANTELEEVA (Russia) 24yrs; 80kgs
2.	Satomi ISHIGAYA (Japan) 23yrs; 66kgs
3.	Galina IVANOVA (Bulgaria) 37yrs; 75kgs
3.	Hanah WEERKAMP (Netherlands) 23yrs; 80kgs

Men?s Middleweight (23 starters)

1.	Katsuo YOSHIDA (Japan) 21yrs; 113kgs
2.	Sergiy PRYADUN (Ukraine) 30yrs; 110kgs
3.	David TSALLAGOV (Russia) 21yrs; 110kgs
3.	Marek PACZKOW (Poland) 37yrs; 115kgs

Women?s Heavyweight (13 starters)

1.	Fernanda Pereira DA COSTA (Brazil) 22yrs; 105kgs
2.	Edyta WITKOWSKA (Poland) 25yrs; 92kgs
3.	Manuela VAN DEN BRINK (Netherlands) 30yrs; 117kgs
3.	Ekaterina KEYB (Russia) 18yrs; 145kgs

Men?s Heavyweight (20 starters)

1.	Takayuki ICHIHARA (Japan) 20yrs; 155kgs
2.	Robert PACZKOW (Poland) 35yrs; 150kgs
3.	Konstantyn STRYZHAK (Ukraine) 24yrs; 125kgs
3.	Petar STOYANOV (Bulgaria) 28yrs; 120kgs


Howard

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