SASUKE 13

Intro

The 13th Competition, official name: SASUKE2004春 (literally SASUKE 2004 Spring) is the first tournament after Nagano Makoto's near miss of kanzenseiha in SASUKE 12 and the only tournament aired in 2004. It is also the ninth tournament after Akiyama Kazuhiko's kanzenseiha. Before the tournament, the biggest trials were held. The SASUKE 13 Trials had a total of 224 competitors with the top 30 rankings and the top 10 women getting an automatic bid (the rest of the participants were judged by the producers as usual). In this tournament, Hatsuta Keisuke took over as main announcer, replacing Furutachi Ichiro, along with new announcer, Komada Kengo (however, he didn't announce SASUKE tournaments after that, before returning as the main announcer from SASUKE 31 onward). Also, with Yamada Katsumi's absence, Yamamoto Shingo became the only competitor to hold the perfect attendance record (his record still stands until today, although he had once announced the retirement from the tournament in SASUKE 28, but he broke it).

Because of Nagano's 0.11 seconds miss of kanzenseiha in the previous tournament, major changes were made into the First Stage. The color of the mats was changed from green to black. Every obstacle (except the Soritatsu Kabe) was either changed or modified to be made harder. The new vertical Jump Hang took out several top competitors, and the new Nejireta Kabe took out Akiyama Kazuhiko, who in the previous tournament had only narrowly missed out on getting a second attempt at the Final Stage. Still, ten competitors cleared the First stage, with Nagano Makoto showed the most impressive performance. He blitzed through the First Stage and cleared with 29.03 seconds left, fifteen seconds faster than everyone else.

In the Second Stage, the first five competitors failed in various failures and time outs. For example, Yamamoto Shingo almost cleared the stage, but his foot was trapped by the Wall Lifting's third wall and ran out of time. However, the last five competitors all cleared, with these five were coincidentally the top five in the trials. Interestingly, the Second Stage success rate (at 50%) was lower than that the previous tournament, where 10 out of 11 competitors cleared despite being no changes to the stage or time limit.

In the Third Stage, four out of five competitors failed at different obstacles. Takeda Toshihiro failed at the Cliffhanger due to his injured right shoulder. Shiratori Bunpei made it to the landing mat at the end of the Pipe Slider, but losing his balance and falling into the water. Interestingly, each competitor who failed at the Third Stage went one obstacle better than his predecessor, with Iketani Naoki failed at the Body Prop, Kobayashi Shinji failed at the Curtain Cling, Takeda Toshihiro failed at the Cliffhanger, and Shiratori Bunpei failed at the Pipe Slider. On the other hand, Nagano Makoto cleared the Third Stage for the third consecutive time, joining Ōmori Akira, who did it in the first three SASUKE tournaments. However, Nagano fell short for kanzenseiha the third straight time (this time, the time ran out just before he could reach the button).

First Stage

Obstacles

① ^Prism See-Saw プリズムシーソー

② *Sandan Rolling Maruta 三段ローリング丸太

③ ^Cross Bridge クロスブリッジ

④ *Jump Hang ジャンプハング

⑤ ^Nejireta Kabe ねじれた壁

⑥ Soritatsu Kabe そり立つ壁

⑦ Tarzan Jump ターザンジャンプ

⑧ *Rope Climb ロープクライム

Time Limit: 80 seconds

Length: 98.7m

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Results

Second Stage

Obstacles

① Chain Reaction チェーンリアクション

↓ Brick Climb ブリッククライム

② Spider Walk スパイダーウォーク

③ Balance Tank バランスタンク

④ Gyakusō Conveyor 逆走コンベアー

⑤ *Wall Lifting ウォールリフティング

Time Limit: 70 seconds

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Results

Third Stage

Obstacles

① Rumbling Dice ランブリングダイス

② Body Prop ボディプロップ

③ ^Curtain Cling カーテンクリング

④ Cliffhanger クリフハンガー

⑤ Pipe Slider パイプスライダー

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Results

Final Stage

Obstacles

① Spider Climb スパイダークライム (12.5m)

② Tsuna Nobori 綱登り (10m)

Length: 22.5m

Results

External Links