I had forgotten what a fantastic televised sport sumo is. During a big tournament, the main matches are live on the telly here from 5pm to 6pm. It goes very well with an ice cold beer and a plate of peanuts.
The skill and explosiveness of the wrestlers is quite awesome and it is engrossing once you get over the fact that they seem to be big men wearing nappies. But the reason it is so good as a televised event is that the confrontations are concentrated into such a short periods of time. It is possible between 5pm and 6pm to see all the main wrestlers fight. Each tournament takes 15 consecutive days to reach its conclusion. In that time all the best sumo wrestlers all match up against each other. Imagine being able to watch every contender in the entire heavyweight boxing division fight each other over a 15 day period!
Asashoryu, a Mongolian wrestler (pictured above, standing), won the summer sumo tournament today with a day to spare. He has won 14 and lost none of his matches. Although by no means the biggest fighter, he seems to have extraordinary power and wrestling nous. At the moment, he is the only Yokozuna, or grand champion, in the sport. This was his win on the third day.
My favourite wrestler, though, is another Mongolian called Ama. He is small but nippy. This victory was against a big lig called Buyuzan.
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