2009 European championships

[Kintamayama 45,530]

Small article and audio:

http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerland/...nne.shtml?15525

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Bonsoir from beautiful and sunny (okay, not at this hour) Lausanne! :-) I've been enjoying lots and lots of quality sumo here the last two days courtesy of the various junior championships, with of course the senior tournaments still to come tomorrow. I've been in full spectator mode here so far so I can't really bring any results - not that I recognized most of the junior competitors anyway. Today's U21 men's 85 kg was just about the first category where I knew more than just a couple of names from prior tournaments (because it's also contested in the senior circuit), U16 and U18 on Friday were a total haze in that regard.

Random notes:

- Attendance so far has been, err, somewhat sparse. Admittedly, perhaps not a huge surprise while "only" the various juniors were in action, but still...on Friday, I was literally unable to find more than a single-digit number of people who were wearing neither credentials, a mawashi or some country's team shirt or jacket. And even the ones I did see mostly seemed to be relatives of competitors... Today was a bit more lively, but I'd still be surprised if there were more than 50 "regular" audience members throughout the day. It's a shame, too, since the bouts have mostly been quite exciting and very evenly matched, probably thanks to the very narrow weight categories (almost all just 5 or 10 kg brackets). Hopefully things pick up for tomorrow, audience-wise.

- Too many copout torinaoshi. I probably shouldn't complain about this here, but it's a pet peeve of mine with Ozumo too...if you're calling a mono-ii because the guy on defense managed to pull down his opponent before stepping/falling out without the referee seeing it (and there have been at least a few cases where the defender was pretty clearly the winner), please be bold enough to just sashi-chigae the bout. It would be less noticeable if there were ever any mono-ii on close decisions in favour of an attacker, too, but (yeah, like in Ozumo) those practically never happen.

- Somebody please ask the main announcer to finish his "Preparing for the next bout:" call before the participants of the current bout are trying to have their tachiai, or hold his words altogether. Perhaps I'm the only one, but I find it incredibly discourteous to be talking over the wrestlers' concentration phase. The lady who was occasionally substituting for him was better about this.

- Friday's U16 was pretty much the Hungaro-Bulgar-Russo-Ukraina-Italian championships. All those countries had double-digit participants, whereas nobody else sent more than two or three (a few lone Estonian, Dutch and one other country I forget's representatives only). Perhaps it was a conscious decision by those associations not to send any very young competitors and they do have some promising youngsters, but I for one am wondering if European amasumo development is already concentrated in a few countries only.

- The Georgian juniors team was surprisingly small, in number if not in size. IIRC every single one of them (all men) competed in the unlimited weight categories - one in the U18, three (I think) in the U21. I can't help but get the impression that Georgia isn't really into fostering grassroots interest in amateur sumo, but rather focussing only on developing more pro prospects. Incidentally, the U18 guy managed to get himself disqualified in his first bout for causing three consecutive matta by trying to have an ozumo-style tachiai (i.e. hands down and then not waiting for the starting call) - duh. He proceeded to steamroll through his two repechage bouts afterwards, then lost the bronze medal match, ironically enough, getting pushed out without resistance because he was waiting for a matta call that never came. Fun times, though perhaps not for him.

- Haven't yet had the opportunity to cheer for a German victory. Only two guys in the U21-M85 category today, each losing their first bout and not figuring into the repechage, and one (?) girl in the earlier U18 competitions - I forget which weight class, because I didn't get there till 9.45 today (yes, I knew it started at 8, but I was up for 36 hours Thursday and Friday and needed sleep in the worst way), by which time 5 of the 6 U18 women's categories were already done, and I only found out about the German girl because she appeared in the medal ceremony as a Bronze medalist. D'oh.

- Russia's Andrey Mongush (U21-M85) had just about the weirdest path to a gold medal ever. In his first bout he only survived thanks to getting (IMHO) one of those copout torinaoshi after he'd been dropped with a perfect and high-arc utchari by Estonia's Siam Mae (seriously, I'm 99.9% sure that Mongush's foot hit the dohyo first - more than a meter outside the dohyo edge, it was that high an utchari). In a later bout that I unfortunately failed to catch his Bulgarian opponent was DQ'ed after a loooong discussion (off-dohyo at the speaker table, not in a mono-ii; no reason announced), then in his next bout he got mono-ii'ed again, though this time he was the defender who originally didn't get the nod (less clearcut case though, both on the decision as well as the offense/defense distinction) - he got one of those rare sashi-chigae in that situation.

- The (I think) first bronze medal match of the U21-M115 category had a picture-perfect...well, I guess it was a shumokuzori. Most scripted fireman's carry takedowns (same move, pretty much) I've seen in pro-wrestling haven't looked that well-executed. Seriously, it was awesome, and so totally unexpected considering it was a weight-class competition.

- Oh yeah, speaking of effects of the weight-class competition: Rule of thumb - the more a) light-weight, b) young or c) female the competitors are, the more likely the bout apparently is to end in a yoritaoshi, usually with at least a half-attempt at an utchari (and sometimes successful, of course). Consequently, the first few categories of the U16 women's competition on Friday were pretty much all yoritaoshi all the time, though it was hardly limited just to those. I'm amazed nobody walked away with any twisted ankles.

- One thing I couldn't help but notice...considering I've primarily seen ozumo thus far, most wrestlers' footwork has been rather odd, to say the least. Lots of people having their feet way back and overcommitting, but during yotsu (not Tosanoumi-style during oshi), resulting in their very bent knees sometimes almost scraping the dohyo even when the opponent isn't even attempting to pull yet. I can see it making sense for the lower weight classes because those bouts tend to feature lots of quickly flailing limbs anyway, but that style of footwork was evident all the way up to the U21 men's 100 kg class today...just about the only ones with uniformly ozumo-style footwork were the 115+ kg competitors.

- More stuff after tomorrow, hopefully, perhaps even with some pics and video...I've been taking pictures very sporadically thus far, mostly because I wouldn't recognize anybody the next day anyway, and because I really find it distracting to watch a bout through the camera (and even moreso for shooting video) when I'm just there to have a good time. Kudos to everybody who's regularly taking pics for us here on the forum, I sure couldn't do it. And maybe I'll actually run into people tomorrow - of course, it doesn't help that nobody knows what I look like. ;-) I'll be the guy in the Milwaukee Brewers shirt tomorrow if anybody else (whom I also didn't know what they look like, of course, and I wasn't going to chat up random credential-wearing people on the off-chance that they know who the hell I am...) wants to say hi.

Edited August 22, 2009 by Asashosakari

[Fredje 0]

Anybody got the results?

[Barang 0]

Estonia got one gold, one silver and seven pronze medals, but article does not include overall results.

ERR Sport

[ilovesumo 12]

Lausanne is super beautiful. I gotta visit Asafan again... ^^

well, for the German results,

Phillipp Brinkmann, bronze light wight (under 85 Kilos) and Bronze Carina Beermann (under 70 Kilos)

oh dear....don't ask my wight class now... ;-) Thank god I have my old knee injury.... Former Kyokutenzan, the German national coach, would love to make me (old shotputter, high jumper and hammer thrower) a Sumo amateur....nah, I am too old and damaged for that...

But I love our and the Dutch youngsters...actually, there is one Dutch guy I would love to see joining a Heya....

[Fredje 0]

I do know Olle Overbosch of Holland took the Gold in the lightweight

[Fredje 0]

Lightweight medals:

1. Olle Overbosch (hol)

2. Styllian Georgiev (bul)

3. Pieter Vroon (hol)

3. Philipp Brinkmann (ger)

[Sasanishiki 57]

Lightweight medals:

1. Olle Overbosch (hol)

2. Styllian Georgiev (bul)

3. Pieter Vroon (hol)

3. Philipp Brinkmann (ger)

Winning that is no mean feat. Was the Hungarian World Games champ there, I wonder? Also surprised to see that Nachyn Mongush (RUS) was not among the medals.

[kenzo 5]

Lightweight medals:

1. Olle Overbosch (hol)

2. Styllian Georgiev (bul)

3. Pieter Vroon (hol)

3. Philipp Brinkmann (ger)

Winning that is no mean feat. Was the Hungarian World Games champ there, I wonder? Also surprised to see that Nachyn Mongush (RUS) was not among the medals.

No Bardosi was'nt there but everyone else was .An absolute magnificent performance from Ollebosch who totally dominated this weight, also the Young Pieter Vroon did very well also considering he is only 80 kg and 17 years old, also taking silver in the - 18 years - 80kg class.Styllian bear Mongoush in second round and then Mongoush lost in repecharge.It was a very tough group.

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Anybody got the results?

*raises hand* Unfortunately with lots of holes as it wasn't always easy to figure out the names from the public announcements. (While actually having a pretty clear enunciation in itself, the main PA guy's accent served to make names of pretty much any origin near-incomprehensible, at least to my ears...) If anyone affiliated with the organizers would like to send a roster of participants my way, I'd love to complete my bout notes.

[ukraine-rg 0]

does anybody know how UKR did (Oliynik - 85 kg, Davydko - female heavy weight)??

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Medal results for the senior competition. All errors are mine, but hey, as long as the ESU can't be bothered to post the results it's either this or nothing. (Sign of approval...)

Women, Lightweight (65 kg):

1. Metodieva, Anna (BUL)

2. Trosiuk, Svitlana (UKR)

3. Pruszko, Ewelia (POL)

3. Boykova, Alina (UKR)

5. Boz, Paola (ITA)

5. Vorobyeva, Nelli (RUS)

Women, Middleweight (80 kg):

1. Alexsandrova, Anna (RUS)

2. Maksimenko, Maryna (UKR)

3. Mae, Epp (EST)

3. Panteleeva, Svetlana (RUS)

5. Rogova, Viktoriya (UKR)

5. Schmidtsdorf, Kerstin (GER)

Women, Heavyweight (80+ kg):

1. Davydko, Olga (UKR)

2. Witkowska-Popecka, Edyta (POL)

3. Zhigalova, Anna (RUS)

3. Kovalenko, Olesya (RUS)

5. Harteveld, Francoise (NED)

5. Krzemien, Sylwia (POL)

Women, Open Weight:

1. Zhigalova, Anna (RUS)

2. Davydko, Olga (UKR)

3. Yaryomka, Svetlana (UKR)

3. Keyb, Ekaterina (RUS)

5. Kallo, Gyongyi (HUN)

5. Makai, Erika (HUN)

Women, Team:

1. Russia (Kovalenko, Zhigalova, Keyb)

2. Poland (Krzemien, ???, Witkowska)

3. Hungary (Kallo, Makai, Hornyak)

3. Estonia (Mae, Siimar, Nugis)

5. Bulgaria (Bozhilova, ???, ???)

5. Ukraine (Maksimenko, Davydko, Yaryomka)

Men, Lightweight (85 kg):

1. Overbosch, Olle (NED)

2. Georgiev, Stiliyan (BUL)

3. Brinkmann, Philipp (GER)

3. Vroon, Pieter (NED)

5. Prim, Roland (HUN)

5. Vassiliev (BUL) (??? total guess)

Men, Middleweight (115 kg):

1. Baghirov, Zaur (AZE)

2. Yermakov, Konstiantyn (UKR)

3. Kaziev, Atsamaz (RUS)

3. Rozum, Marcin (POL)

5. Szelp, Denes (HUN) (? guess)

5. Barta, Peter (HUN)

Men, Heavyweight (115+ kg):

1. Tsabolov, Batraz (RUS)

2. Bagaev, Artur (RUS)

3. Stoyanov, Petar (BUL)

3. Alsadi, Haitham (NED)

5. Tsertsavadze, Avtandil (GEO)

5. Jaracz, Jacek (POL)

Men, Openweight:

1. Paczkow, Robert (POL)

2. Tsertsavadze, Avtandil (GEO)

3. Stoyanov, Petar (BUL)

3. Karaev, Alan (RUS)

5. Yermakov, Konstiantyn (UKR)

5. Alsadi, Haitham (NED)

Men, Team:

1. Georgia (Tsertsvadze, Okruashvili, Balashvili)

2. Russia (Karaev, Tsabolov, ???)

3. Ukraine (???, Yermakov, Pischulin)

3. Poland (Jaracz, Piersiak, Paczkow, Rozum ₎

_{5. Bulgaria (Iliev?, ???, Stoyanov)}

_{5. Estonia (Goidov, Mae, Tammearu)}

Edited August 27, 2009 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Quick Sunday notes: Attendance was...meh. Generously I'll say 200 across the entire day, with maybe a maximum of 100 at a time.

But plenty of good bouts again, with one caveat: It's never bothered me in Ozumo to see, say, a 130 kg rikishi having to face somebody 50 kg heavier, but I've found I don't particularly care for all the really heavy men and women in amasumo, at least not in the current setup. In Ozumo at least the "skill density" (for lack of a better term) is high enough that there will be competitive bouts even between guys with wildly different weights, but with international amasumo's still limited talent base that's mostly not the case, and lots and lots of "heavyweight" (really, heavyweight vs. super-heavyweight) bouts before the final matchups are almost completely foregone conclusions. In addition, it turns the openweight competition into somewhat of an afterthought since it's pretty much a re-run of the heavyweight category with some middleweight invitationals. (Yermakov turned himself into a bit of a fan favourite by actually hanging well with all those bigger guys, shame he didn't manage to come through against Stoyanov in the bronze medal bout.) And if anything, it's even worse in the women's competition.

In other words, I sure wouldn't mind seeing one additional weight class each, maybe 100 kg for women and 145 for men.

The day finished with the team competitions, where I have to kvetch again: What on Earth is the point in always having four teams (the currently fighting two and the next two) present at the dohyo when not a single athlete seems to know it's supposed to be done that way and you end up wasting more time shushing the next two teams to the dohyo ahead of time than if you simply called them in when they're actually going to be fighting? It was downright surreal. And then the final bout of the tournament, of all things, ended in a controversial DQ that decided over the men's team gold and silver medals. Wow.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Asashosakari

[mod 0]

Renens (SUI) 23-08-2009

EUROPEAN SUMO CHAMPIONSHIP

SENIOR

MEN

Lightweight -85

1

[aderechelsea 125]

Heavyweight +115

1

[mod 0]

Karaev lost yet again? what happened? I remember Tsertsavadze being a mountain and quite a good wrestler too and Paczkow being quite muscular ... who beat Karaev in the semis?

Karaev losts with Stoyanov in his first match.

[aderechelsea 125]

Karaev losts with Stoyanov in his first match.

ow .. yeah ... forgot all about those repechage rules ... (Sign of approval...)

[Asashosakari 19,663]

I remember Tsertsavadze being a mountain and quite a good wrestler too

I wasn't too impressed. Huge guy and, umm, "sufficient" mobility to do enough damage with it, but he really didn't seem to have much else to offer. He lucked into three easy-ish opponents in his first openweight bouts, then had the fortune of facing Stoyanov in the semifinal who always takes every opponent head-on and just couldn't quite push out Tsertsavadze. Paczkow went about it more intelligently in the final and beat him relatively easily IMO.

BTW, videos of the medal bouts coming if I can ever find the time to edit and upload the clips... (And thanks to mod for clarifying a few of those names I got wrong! Still looking for a full list of names so I can post the complete results...)

Edited August 27, 2009 by Asashosakari

[Sasanishiki 57]

and lots and lots of "heavyweight" (really, heavyweight vs. super-heavyweight) bouts before the final matchups are almost completely foregone conclusions.

While I agreet oan extent, I think the fact that Paczkow won the open weight is interesting in this regard. I haven't seen him in 3 years so he might have gotten a lot heavier, but I always pictured him as being a solid but slightly smaller athlete. His skill is fantastic and more than makes up for being a bit lighter than some of his competitors, but I would consider him a 'heavyweight' rather than a 'super-heavyweight' using your categories. Has this changed?

In other words, I sure wouldn't mind seeing one additional weight class each, maybe 100 kg for women and 145 for men.

I've always thought the next appropriate weightclass should actually be a split of the men's middleweight into under-100kg and under-115kg. This would make the two divisions realy competitive as the lighter middleweights would not need to put on extra weight to be able to hold their own with the lighter heavyweights who drop to get under weight. A split into heavyweight (under 145kg) and super-heavyweight, for want of better terms, would still see the open weight turn into an afterthought. I doubt the open weight is ever going to go because it is the essence of (professional) sumo and Japanese martial arts - skill vs skill, regardless of size.

[Asashosakari 19,663]

While I agreet oan extent, I think the fact that Paczkow won the open weight is interesting in this regard. I haven't seen him in 3 years so he might have gotten a lot heavier, but I always pictured him as being a solid but slightly smaller athlete. His skill is fantastic and more than makes up for being a bit lighter than some of his competitors, but I would consider him a 'heavyweight' rather than a 'super-heavyweight' using your categories. Has this changed?

Yeah, as mentioned this whole objection of mine applies even more strongly to the women than the men. What really drove this home to me was the Hungarian girl who won the 70+ kg category for the under-16's. Unlike most of the other girls in that category who had the more common "short and stocky" heavyweight body type, she was actually very tall (probably already over 180 cm) and slender, and she completely overwhelmed her opponents - imagine a cross of Kotonishiki's high-speed tachiai and Kyokutenho's vice-like yotsu-zumo. Obviously I have no idea if she'll stick with sumo, but if she does she'll probably find it difficult to fit into the seniors' 80 kg category once fully-grown, and there's no chance in hell that she'll have any chance of competing successfully against random 150 kg women.

Anyway, by eyeballing it I would have put Paczkow around the 140 kg mark, but I'm really not sure. Definitely small-ish (though very muscular) compared to a guy like Stoyanov, not to mention Tsertsavadze. Paczkow was suitably excited about his victory. :-) (Gotta get the videos done already...)

I've always thought the next appropriate weightclass should actually be a split of the men's middleweight into under-100kg and under-115kg. This would make the two divisions realy competitive as the lighter middleweights would not need to put on extra weight to be able to hold their own with the lighter heavyweights who drop to get under weight. A split into heavyweight (under 145kg) and super-heavyweight, for want of better terms, would still see the open weight turn into an afterthought. I doubt the open weight is ever going to go because it is the essence of (professional) sumo and Japanese martial arts - skill vs skill, regardless of size.

That reminds me of something else I wanted to mention after Sunday but forgot. As I mentioned on Saturday, the U21 men's 85 kg category was the first I actually recognized guys from senior competitions at other tournaments. The same was true of the 115 kg category, but not the 100 kg where the juniors featured tons of guys I'd never heard of before. I couldn't quite figure out if that's because those guys just don't make it into senior competitions (with their combined 85 to 115 kg bracket), or because 100 kg juniors tend to fill out towards 115 kg later on. I agree, I wouldn't be opposed to a weight-class split there, too.

An additional aspect that turned the openweight into an afterthought was the spotty level of participation...I didn't exactly expect it to be like the World Games where nearly all 48 athletes from the three weight classes showed up, but seeing less than half the available number of wrestlers entered (and some, like Karaev, only competed in the open) was a bit disappointing, although understandable since you really don't stand much of a chance as a non-heavyweight. That said, no matter sumo's roots, I honestly wouldn't be too sad to see the openweight go altogether; if sumo ever becomes Olympic it won't make it there anyway, and if it's a heavyweight-participation-only competition in all but name anyway (as it looked to be at the Euros), it'll hardly be missed.

Edited August 30, 2009 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Slowly starting to work my way through the videos...here are the women's individual competitions. Apologies for the often shaky camera work...I'm not used to holding the camera steady for so long, and having to use the digital zoom didn't help matters. BTW, for the bronze medal bouts the wrestler on the East side is always the one coming from repechage, the one on the West side is from the semifinals.

Women's Lightweight (65 kg):

First bronze medal bout: Ewelia Pruszko (POL) vs Paola Boz (ITA)

Second bronze medal bout: Nelli Vorobyeva (RUS) vs Alina Boykova (UKR)

Gold medal bout: Anna Metodieva (BUL) vs Svitlana Trosiuk (UKR)

---

Women's Middleweight (80 kg):

First bronze medal bout: Viktoriya Rogova (UKR) vs Epp Mae (EST)

Second bronze medal bout: Svetlana Penteleeva (RUS) vs Kerstin Schmidtsdorf (GER)

Gold medal bout: Anna Aleksandrova (RUS) vs Maryna Maksimenko (UKR)

---

Women's Heavyweight (80+ kg):

First bronze medal bout: Francoise Harteveld (NED) vs Anna Zhigalova (RUS)

Second bronze medal bout: Sylwia Krzemien (POL) vs Olesya Kovalenko (RUS)

Gold medal bout: Edyta Witkowska-Popecka (POL) vs Olga Davydko (UKR)

---

Women's Open Weight:

First bronze medal bout: Gyongyi Kallo (HUN) vs Svitlana Yaryomka (UKR)

Second bronze medal bout: Erika Makai (HUN) vs Ekaterina Keyb (RUS)

Gold medal bout: Anna Zhigalova (RUS) vs Olga Davydko (UKR)

[Barang 0]

Thanks for videos. Epp M

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Next batch, the men's individual competitions:

Men's Lightweight (85 kg):

First bronze medal bout: Philipp Brinkmann (GER) vs Roland Prim (HUN)

Second bronze medal bout: Vassiliev (BUL) vs Pieter Vroon (NED) [still don't know if "Vassiliev" is really correct...anyone?]

Gold medal bout: Stiliyan Georgiev (BUL) vs Olle Overbosch (NED)

---

Men's Middleweight (115 kg):

First bronze medal bout: Denes Szelp (?) (HUN) vs Atsamaz Kaziev (RUS) - I missed taping this one, sorry. After a little bit of back-and-forth, Kaziev tsuridashi'ed his opponent from nearly the middle of the ring...the Hungarian seemed to be so surprised by it that he made absolutely zero attempt at breaking Kaziev's balance and just let himself get carried halfway across and out.

Second bronze medal bout: Peter Barta (HUN) vs Marcin Rozum (POL)

Gold medal bout: Zaur Baghirov (AZE) vs Kostyantyn Yermakov (UKR)

---

Men's Heavyweight (115+ kg):

First bronze medal bout: Petar Stoyanov (BUL) vs Avtandil Tsertsavadze (GEO)

Second bronze medal bout: Haitham Alsadi (NED) vs Jacek Jaracz (POL)

Gold medal bout: Artur Bagaev (RUS) vs Batraz Tsabolov (RUS)

---

Men's Open Weight:

First bronze medal bout: Kostyantyn Yermakov (UKR) vs Petar Stoyanov (BUL)

Second bronze medal bout: Alan Karaev (RUS) vs Haitham Alsadi (NED)

Gold medal bout: Robert Paczkow (POL) vs Avtandil Tsertsavadze (GEO)

[Asashosakari 19,663]

Team videos later (probably), for now the summarized team results (detailed results are still held up by, you know):

Women:

Main Draw:

Hungary 3-0 Estonia

Poland 2-1 Great Britain

Switzerland 0-3 Russia

Ukraine 3-0 Bulgaria

Hungary 3-0 Italy

Poland 2-1 Ukraine

Hungary 0-3 Russia

Repechage:

Estonia 3-0 Italy

Great Britain 1-2 Bulgaria

Estonia 3-0 Switzerland

Bronze Medal:

Bulgaria 1-2 Hungary

Estonia 2-1 Ukraine

Gold Medal:

Poland 0-3 Russia

---

Men:

Main Draw:

Hungary 0-3 Ukraine

Switzerland 1-2 Estonia

Poland 3-0 Italy

Bulgaria 3-0 Netherlands

Ukraine 0-3 Georgia

Estonia 0-3 Russia

Georgia 3-0 Poland

Russia 2-1 Bulgaria

Repechage:

Ukraine 3-0 Italy

Estonia 2-1 Netherlands

Bronze Medal:

Ukraine 2-1 Bulgaria

Estonia 0-3 Poland

Gold Medal:

Georgia 2-1 Russia

[Sasanishiki 57]

I've just had look at a couple of these videos and what I noticed was the 'interesting' tachiai in a couple of matches. Georgiev looks clearly hampered by the knee injury for which he is wearing the brace. he is unable to bend his knee and has done well to reach the final if he started the tournament with such an injury. However, the Ukrainian female lightweight Trosiuk has the worst tachiai I have ever seen from a woman. With some of the heavier guys I can understand how they do not have the flexibility to get low. I can even understand some of the athletes who come from American football having a very high stance. I really do not understand her stance, except that she was not prepared to move forward and wanted to turn it into an upper-body wrestling-type match. I don't often have a lot of time for her compatriot Alina Boykova's delaying tactics at the tachiai, but at least Alina gets right down and starts 'properly'.