The 1st Sumo Grand Prix was held this past weekend in Los Angeles. The USSF and the Grand Sumo Los Angeles helped bring out quality competitors from Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Georgia, and Tonga. In addition to the competitors, sumo legends Sendagawa, Tochiazuma, and our friend Musashimaru also came out to support the tournament.
There weren’t enough women to have individual weight classes, so they all competed in the openweight division. The clear winner was current World Middleweight Champion Asano Matsuura from Japan.
In the lightweights, everybody was waiting for the rematch between 5-time US Champ Trent Sabo and Ginji Kochi of Japan. Trent beat Ginji at last year’s World Championships and Ginji wanted to redeem himself. Unfortunately for Trent, Ginji got his revenge and took home the gold.
My training partner Robert Ashworth competed in the middleweight class. He surprised everybody, including himself, by actually beating one of the Japanese competitors. Robert ended up with the bronze.
I competed as a heavyweight. I beat everybody in my pool except for Bayanbat Davaadalai from Mongolia. I defeated Tedo from Georgia in the quarterfinals, but for some reason I had to face Bayanbat again in the semifinals. I lost again, then beat newcomer Joe Isamau from Tonga for the bronze.
Because I lost in the heavyweights, I planned on winning the openweight gold. I was plowing through my opponents until I got to Ginji Kochi. I moved him to the edge, but his sneaky moves gave me my first ever loss to a lightweight. Another trick move by Tedo Rtveliashvili took me down to fourth place. At least I didn’t lose to any other Americans.
