Re Ura/Onosato, the reporter on the NHK highlights show explained that rikishi must have the soles of their feet on the ground and Ura's feet weren't as he fell over. I also would have loved him to win this one but at least it doesn't seem like they're saying his butt hit at the same time as Onosato's hands did, which was very obviously not the case.
having said that, tachiai.org reports today that apparently the judges were split and therefore ended up settling for a rematch. i don't read japanese but the auto-translation (wary as i am of those) quotes the head judge as saying "Opinions were divided even in the video room. Onosato's hands were quick to land, but Ura's body was weak and he couldn't continue the sumo any further. Onosato's good athleticism and pressure led to a rematch. When in doubt, try again. The stronger wrestler will win the rematch."
I saw this from the head judge, too. I'm very much in the camp of, "it's a strike because the umpire called it a strike." However, I still get frustrated when things simply 'feel' off. Sure, Ura was on his way to the ground. But at what point is trying to reduce your rate of falling or controlling which part of your body hits the ground first considered being more than a dead body? It's very subjective. The subjectivity and ambiguity to some things is a feature, not a bug, with sumo. Even so... poor Ura.
yeah. i also feel like saying "the stronger wrestler will win the rematch" is a bit of a cop-out, because yeah, that may be so, but usually there's only one match and the (overall) stronger wrestler won't necessarily win it. it all gets sorted out over 15 days rather than in a single match.
my personal take at this stage is that it very much looked like ura won it (or was the dominant rikishi at the end at any rate) and they forced a rematch on relatively weak grounds :-(
also opens the door again to your original critical remark that onosato's stable master was one of those judges. hmpf.
If anyone deserves a break it's Pink Magic. I'm quite flabbergasted that the gyoji called it for Onosato in real-time. I guess it would have felt even more egregious if the mono-ii had taken the win away from him, though...
The case is definitely starting to mount up. I still think a lot of that is unconscious/implicit, though. If a few more of these happen I might change my mind.
Re Ura/Onosato, the reporter on the NHK highlights show explained that rikishi must have the soles of their feet on the ground and Ura's feet weren't as he fell over. I also would have loved him to win this one but at least it doesn't seem like they're saying his butt hit at the same time as Onosato's hands did, which was very obviously not the case.
having said that, tachiai.org reports today that apparently the judges were split and therefore ended up settling for a rematch. i don't read japanese but the auto-translation (wary as i am of those) quotes the head judge as saying "Opinions were divided even in the video room. Onosato's hands were quick to land, but Ura's body was weak and he couldn't continue the sumo any further. Onosato's good athleticism and pressure led to a rematch. When in doubt, try again. The stronger wrestler will win the rematch."
I saw this from the head judge, too. I'm very much in the camp of, "it's a strike because the umpire called it a strike." However, I still get frustrated when things simply 'feel' off. Sure, Ura was on his way to the ground. But at what point is trying to reduce your rate of falling or controlling which part of your body hits the ground first considered being more than a dead body? It's very subjective. The subjectivity and ambiguity to some things is a feature, not a bug, with sumo. Even so... poor Ura.
yeah. i also feel like saying "the stronger wrestler will win the rematch" is a bit of a cop-out, because yeah, that may be so, but usually there's only one match and the (overall) stronger wrestler won't necessarily win it. it all gets sorted out over 15 days rather than in a single match.
my personal take at this stage is that it very much looked like ura won it (or was the dominant rikishi at the end at any rate) and they forced a rematch on relatively weak grounds :-(
also opens the door again to your original critical remark that onosato's stable master was one of those judges. hmpf.
Yeah, that reasoning is pretty absurd.
Loved Takayasu's arm drag. Aaaaand, my man Ura won that bout. Kinboshi.
If anyone deserves a break it's Pink Magic. I'm quite flabbergasted that the gyoji called it for Onosato in real-time. I guess it would have felt even more egregious if the mono-ii had taken the win away from him, though...
For real, Onosato doesn't need any help from the judges but they seem to give him the benefit of the doubt way too often. #justiceforura
The case is definitely starting to mount up. I still think a lot of that is unconscious/implicit, though. If a few more of these happen I might change my mind.