Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007

Yokozuna Hakuho fell to his second loss of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Wednesday, giving lowly rank-and-filer Goeido sole possession of the lead with four days remaining.

Maegashira Takamisakari and Nishikido stablemaster hold an unidentified person who tried to step up onto the dohyo on Wednesday at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan. KYODO PHOTO

Hakuho was kept at bay throughout a surprisingly lopsided match against fifth-ranked maegashira Toyonoshima and dropped to 9-2, one win off makuuchi debutant Goeido in the 15-day meet at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

Toyonoshima (7-4) was quick in putting his arms under the armpits of Hakuho and prevented the Mongolian yokozuna from executing his favorite belt-gripping style of sumo.

After a pull-down attempt separated both men toward the edge of the ring, Toyonoshima finished it off with a series of thrusts to the belly for his first career win against Hakuho in four meetings.

Goeido, wrestling at the 14th position, barged out eighth-ranked Takekaze to record his ninth straight victory in a bout held shortly after confusion reigned when a spectator tried to run up onto the ring in a rare incident. Takekaze dropped to 8-3.

Ozeki Chiyotaikai and the other four wrestlers tied at 8-2 after they all lost their previous day's bouts.

Chiyotaikai fell victim to a "henka" move by third-ranked maegashira Kotoshogiku, who sidestepped to his left at the faceoff and sent the veteran ozeki crashing into the dirt with a simple push to the back of his head.

Newly promoted ozeki Kotomitsuki (7-4) moved within one win of notching the majority of wins, yanking down early pacesetter Aminishiki with a devastating slap on the neck of the sekiwake in the middle of the ring.

Aminishiki lost his third straight bout after an 8-0 start.

Meanwhile, Mongolian sekiwake Asasekiryu (5-6) handed Bulgarian ozeki Kotooshu his fourth defeat.

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