Yokozuna Hakuho won with ease to maintain his lead on the 10th day of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center in Fukuoka on Tuesday.
Hakuho, the lone yokozuna in the tournament, earned his ninth victory with a strong performance in forcing out No. 5 maegashira Aoiyama (5-5).
New komusubi Asanoyama, who trails Hakuho by one loss, picked up his kachikoshi eighth victory by forcing out No. 2 maegashira Meisei (5-5) to keep the pressure on the yokozuna.
In their first matchup, ozeki Takakeisho pushed out No. 4 maegashira Kotoyuki (4-6) after the two exchanged a combination of shoves and thrusts. It was the seventh victory for the 23-year-old ozeki.
Sekiwake Mitakeumi suffered a painful loss to even his record at 5-5 as No. 5 maegashira Ryuden (4-6) tenaciously forced him out.
In other action, komusubi Abi improved to 6-4 by pushing out fellow komusubi Hokutofuji (4-6), who suffered his fourth consecutive loss.
No. 2 maegashira Myogiryu (4-6) avoided four straight losses by quickly forcing out komusubi Endo (4-6).
Ozeki Takayasu, who has withdrawn from the tournament because of an injury, will be demoted to the rank of sekiwake as he is set to lose a majority of bouts over two straight tourneys.
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