ZCZC
BSP-11
HEALTH-VIRUS-SUMO-JPN
Virus forces cancellation of Japan sumo tournament
TOKYO, May 4, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Japan’s sumo association said Monday it
would cancel its upcoming tournament and aim to hold the following one behind
closed doors, as the country extended a state of emergency over the
coronavirus.
The next sumo “basho” or tournament had been scheduled to begin on May 24,
after organisers of the nation’s ancient sport delayed the event by two weeks
over the pandemic.
But chairman Hakkaku said in a statement that the association had decided
to cancel the May tournament “in order to secure the health and safety of
fans and people involved.”
The announcement came shortly after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe extended a
state of emergency over the virus until the end of May.
It is the first cancellation of a basho since 2011 when a spring sumo
tournament was scrapped over a bout-fixing scandal. That was the first
cancellation in more than half a century.
There are usually six tournaments across Japan each year, and the
association said it “aims” to hold the July basho without spectators and
would move the tournament from Nagoya in central Japan to Tokyo where sumo
wrestlers are based.
The outbreak in Japan has been smaller than in many countries, with around
15,000 cases and 510 deaths confirmed so far, but the government declared a
state of emergency in seven regions about a month ago and later expanded it
nationwide.
A handful of low-ranking wrestlers and trainees as well as a stable master
have tested positive for the virus.
The spring basho, held in March in Osaka, took place without spectators,
with wrestlers surrounded by just a handful of judges in the empty arena.
But it was broadcast live on national TV, where viewers could hear sounds
normally drowned out by the crowd, including wrestlers slapping their bellies
and scraping their feet on the clay ring.
Some rituals were amended, including the traditional ladle of water that a
winning wrestler offers to the next in the ring.
BSS/AFP/MRU/1755hrs