Sekiwake Mitakeumi kept up his charge for a first career title, remaining unbeaten after eight days of the watered-down Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament with an impressive win over No. 2 maegashira Chiyonokuni on Sunday.
Mitakeumi was sidestepped and sent to the edge early on, but regrouped and launched a charge that swept Chiyo- nokuni out of the ring, his seventh win in seven career meetings with the maegashira.
Meanwhile, two of the three maegashira-ranked wrestlers who started the day one win behind Mitakeumi -- No. 6 Endo and No. 13 Asanoyama -- maintained that gap by improving to 7-1. The third, No. 6 Chiyotairyu, was dealt his second loss.
With all three yokozuna and newly minted ozeki Tochinoshin out of the tournament, the remaining ozeki have the chance to redeem themselves beyond keeping their rank, while possibly maintaining a recent trend.
In the past 20 years, there have been six tournaments devoid of yokozuna, and every one was won by an ozeki; in three cases, it was the first title of the wrestler's career.
Ozeki Takayasu, whose kadoban status means he needs a majority of wins to keep his rank, moved closer to both objectives by notching his sixth win, forcing out No. 4 maegashira Kagayaki to remain two wins behind the leader.
Ozeki Goeido, like Takayasu competing under kadoban status, was shuffled to the edge by mammoth No. 4 maegashira Kaisei, but managed to twist him down to improve to 5-3.
Earlier, Endo made use of a replay with No. 9 maegashira Myogiryu to force him out and notch his seventh win. In their initial meeting, Endo was pushed to the edge, where he unleashed a desperate throw that sent the two flying off together and led the judges to rule that neither was the winner.
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