Mongolian yokozuna Asashoryu and Hakuho held off challenges by rank-and-filers and picked up their second wins with ease at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Monday.
Asashoryu, who brushed off retirement talk to lift an Emperor's Cup for the first time in five meets in January, wasted little time from the faceoff to barge top-ranked maegashira Kakuryu out of the ring with unstoppable shoves and arm thrusts at Osaka Municipal Gymnasium.
Minutes later, Hakuho swiftly got his left hand on the front side of the belt of Hokutoriki, the other No. 1 maegashira, at the outset of the day's final bout and bulldozed him over the edge of the ring into the front row of spectators' seat. Kakuryu dropped 1-1 and Hokutoriki is 0-2.
Both Asashoryu and Hakuho have lived up to expectations, at least thus far in the 15-day tournament, that the archrivals would lock horns again after Asashoryu's memorable comeback victory in a championship playoff at the New Year tournament.