
Sumo row sees legendary wrestler quit Japan association to launch world project
Hakuho, the Mongolian-born former grand champion widely regarded as sumo wrestling's greatest competitor, has resigned from the Japan Sumo Association following a dispute with the sport's governing body.
The sanction stemmed from allegations that Hakuho failed to adequately supervise a wrestler within his training stable.
Hakuho's stable was closed a year ago. Japanese media reports say the wrestler in question engaged in physical violence. But closing a stable, instead of just punishing an individual wrestler, was unusual.
He did not directly criticize the professional Japan Sumo Association, but he said wrestlers who had trained under him were treated unfairly.
Hakuho, who was granted Japanese citizenship, said he had been in talks with the association but recently decided to quit because there was no hope of reopening his stable.
'After 25 years of loving sumo and being loved by sumo, I want to advance toward a new dream,' Hakuho told reporters Monday at a Tokyo hotel.
Hakuho said he wants to create a body to govern sumo outside Japan — the 'world sumo project.'
'When I think of my situation, I think it's best to contribute to sumo from the outside,' he said, wearing a dark suit and referring to the Japan Sumo Association.
Appearing with a lawyer and other officials he had tapped for his team, Hakuho said they were getting corporate sponsors to back sumo grand slams, which draw amateur sumo wrestlers from around the world, including children and women.
Hakuho said he was friends with Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda, who has expressed interest in supporting his efforts. Toyota already supports various amateur and professional sports activities.
Many regard the Mongolia-born Hakuko as the greatest champion in the sport's history and he holds many of its records.
Hahuko's late-father, who went by the given name of Monkhbat, was an Olympic silver medalist for Mongolia in 1968. He also competed in at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Sumo encompasses very strict rules and traditions that have prompted other top wrestlers to pursue careers outside the sport.
Hahuko retired from active wrestling in 2021.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Cummins and Rabada lead from the front on a breathless second day at Lord's
You would have to call the combination incongruous. In one of the clips doing the digital rounds before the World Test Championship, there was Pat Cummins on Jeremy Clarkson's farm programme, having apparently just raided the activewear section, the men around him wearing those vests that help rich people believe themselves to be rugged outdoor types. It's hard to imagine much affinity between the two, sitting presumably at a wooden farmhouse table over Clarkson's rustic bean soup and a heel of crusty bread, talking their way to a cordial entente about carbon emissions. But there was the Australian captain nonetheless, affably rolling an arm over while a farm type plonked a rubber ball on to a nearby shed, the bowler smiling in that way that suggests a shrug as Clarkson sledged him in a most British fashion. By the second day of the World Test Championship final, affable Cummins was not in attendance. We're used to that half smile, half shrug: even after some galling Test losses, Cummins has offered the perspective that the game is a game, that the players tried their best, and that losing is often the price of trying to win. He declines to be drawn into the hype that frames sport as everything. But this time was different, if only by a few degrees. It's not that there was anger in the performance, but there was something uncharacteristically flinty. Perhaps there was some influence from the pre-game chatter, much of which focused on Cummins on the one hand and Kagiso Rabada on the other, as their teams' spearhead bowlers. The question came up several times: who is better? With a similar volume of Tests played, wickets taken, and averages a few tenths apart, it's an interesting one to consider. It's not the sort of thing that would exactly have upset Cummins, but the smiling captain is still highly competitive. Perhaps it gave him something to prove. Rabada got first chance, double-striking early on his way to five for 51, passing Allan Donald's wicket tally in the process to reach 332. Cummins went bigger and cheaper, six for 28 to reach an even 300. Kyle Verreyne's wicket was one with a few sparks. There was the skill, a ball heading sufficiently towards leg-stump to beat the bat, but not enough to miss the wicket, foxing the umpire but not Cummins or the ball-tracking cameras. But amid all that came a heavy collision, Cummins backpedalling in his appeal, Verreyne ball-watching as he attempted to run a leg bye. Normally you would expect Cummins to help an opponent up after finding his feet, but no hand was extended, his mind purely on the possible review. Australia didn't run out Verreyne, which they were within their rights to do, but that was as far as courtesy went. Then there was Rabada coming out to bat. Having taken five wickets to this point by pitching up – a classic back off the seam to hit the stumps, two mistimed shots befuddled by pace to give up catches in front of the bat, an in-nipper for lbw, an away-ducker for an outside edge – Cummins immediately spread the field and went short. A few balls later he hit Rabada on the body. A quick query about his health, a thumbs up, and the next ball was straight back at him, this time smashing him in the grille. Third time unlucky, Rabada pulled to the deep and was caught. It was uncompromising and, in the context, perhaps it was pointed. After which, an hour into the second session, he wouldn't have been expecting to be batting before the end of the day. But so it goes sometimes, on the Lord's slope with heavy cloud and a general gloom that made the ball hard to see. It was Rabada to start with another double strike, and Marco Jansen to take out the other opening bat, but this time Lungi Ngidi got involved, three huge wickets through the middle order. The last of those was Cummins, two balls after smoking a drive for four, bowled by one that speared in at the pads and deflected back. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Being 73 for seven is not a position that any Test team should find comfortable, but when the third innings has almost ended before the second day has, the calculus is different. Cummins had been among South Africa's early chaos on the first evening. He had dislodged the only two obstacles on the second day, Temba Bavuma and David Bedingham. Then he had wrapped up the end. It was a captain's performance to give his team a 74-run advantage, huge in relative terms despite their own small first innings. That meant that with a repair job by Alex Carey in the second, removed by Rabada late in the day, even Australia's faltering batting had given them a lead of over 200. South Africa have to believe that they can chase that kind of score, but on the evidence so far, it gives Australia every chance of a second World Test Championship win. Rabada still has a chance of 10 wickets in the match. Cummins still has a chance to reply.


The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Call me Trent': Alexander-Arnold arrives at Madrid with dreams of Alonso and glory
Well, that was unexpected. Trent Alexander-Arnold took out the earpiece, made his way to the stage at Real Madrid's training ground and said: 'Buenas tardes, a todos': Good afternoon, everyone. So far, so standard. But then he delivered the next line in Spanish too, then the one after that, and the one after that. He kept going until he got to the end of his speech, when he delivered the one line everyone invariably does on the day they are presented here: 'Hala Madrid!' It wasn't long – one minute and one second, in all – but it was long enough to win them over already. 'I think it surprised a lot of people,' Alexander-Arnold said when he had made his way over to the press room. 'For me it was important to do that, to have a good start.' He wasn't wrong: there had been a kind of double-take as he went on, an increasing admiration, and this was a very good start: delivered smoothly, with no cue cards, only the tiniest pause at one point and in genuinely good Spanish, accent and all. 'Perfect,' one sports daily called it. 'Impeccable,' another said. Suspiciously good, some inevitably suggested. 'How long have you been learning for?' he was asked. There was a smile, an awareness that this question could be a little loaded. 'A few months, a few months,' he replied. 'This is very, very exciting for me, a day I've been looking forward to for a long time – by 'waiting a long time' I mean a couple of weeks, not years.' There were those who wondered whether Alexander-Arnold's departure from Liverpool hadn't been longer in the making, the quality of his Spanish something to celebrate but also becoming Exhibit A. His decision to leave, after all, had not been accepted by everyone, some supporters even booing him. But the defender, raised in West Derby and at the club since he was six, said he was happy with the send-off and the club's owners told him he would be welcome back. He would be 'for ever indebted'. He would only have ever left for Madrid, he said. 'There's a contrast of emotions, two different ends of the scale,' Alexander-Arnold said. 'Experiencing everything I did [at Liverpool], what I had done. It was an honour, it was always going to be emotional for me. I am happy with the send-off, the way the club treated me, the way the fans were. That was outstanding, I couldn't say a bad word. 'I was speaking to players, the manager, the owners, and they were all incredible. I had a lot of support, a huge amount of help, and an amazing conversation with the owners that lasted a couple of days. They thanked me for everything I gave, wished me well on my future journey and said they would have me back at the club at any point. 'To have those words was amazing. And to be here now facing a new challenge is equally exciting. Not many players get to experience this. I am very lucky and very proud. To play for Real Madrid is a fantastic honour, an achievement in itself.' 'Ten or 11 years ago, this is not something you dream of because it is just out of reach: there's only a select handful that get a chance to be part of this,' Alexander-Arnold added, but it had become real. 'It was not a question of where to go; it was whether or not to go,' he said. 'I knew that if I was ever to leave Liverpool, it would only be to Real Madrid. And it gets to the point where you have to make a decision whether to go or stay. It wasn't an easy decision. I had been there so long. But in my mind it is the right one. 'I am fortunate to have played for the biggest club in England and now the biggest in Spain, and both have massive histories. I am much happier playing with these players than against them. I am sure we can strike up a good connection and get the chemistry going. Hopefully I can give them many, many assists.' 'I feel mature, ready, experienced enough to go and be successful somewhere else. It's an opportunity you have to think about seriously and I did.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Asked if his attacking qualities might be more appreciated in a Spanish football culture, rather than in England where focus perhaps falls on defensive flaws, Alexander-Arnold replied: 'That's not something I have really thought about, to be honest. I do what I am told; I did that with two managers at Liverpool. If people don't appreciate the way I play, it is what it is. As long as the manager and the players appreciate me then: whatever.' There will be two familiar faces waiting for him in Madrid: his close friend Jude Bellingham and the former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso, who has just taken over as coach. Alexander-Arnold, though, denied that agent Bellingham had played a key role in bringing him to the Bernabéu. 'It wasn't exactly what people thought it was,' he said. 'We spoke. We spoke a lot about Liverpool and Madrid. That's just the kind of conversations we have as players and friends. In the national team, [Bellingham] was the only one who knew what it was like to be at Real Madrid so everyone was asking questions. A lot of people think he played a huge part in me coming here but the club speaks for itself.' 'I grew up a Liverpool fan watching Istanbul [Liverpool's 2005 Champions League triumph] and now [Alonso] is a manager and doing incredible things,' Alexander-Arnold said. 'I have spoken to him and it is good to have that communication. I told him he was a big idol growing up so to be able to work with him is a dream. Watching him pass a ball influenced me to train harder at that and set standards – I explained that to him as well. I will be a sponge around him, trying to soak up all the information I can.' On the back of the new shirt is a No 12 and just 'Trent'. 'That's easily explained,' Real Madrid's new signing said. 'I always found that in Europe the whole name thing confused a lot of people. Double barrelled. Some called me Alexander, some called me Arnold, some both, some Alex. Some Trent. I thought: let's make it simple. Trent's my name. Trent on the back, let's make it Trent. That's what people can call me.'


BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Jersey netballers plea for new home in Royal Square protest
Jersey netballers have braved the rain to push the island's government to find the sport a permanent Jersey Netball Association (JNA) said the sport was "in crisis" after losing its current base at Les Ormes, which is being turned into padel courts, and were instead offered 27 hours per month at the £8.4m new sports hall at Oakfield in St Julie Andrews, who was at a protest in Royal Square, said it was time to "make a noise" because the decline of netball was "crucial and it's so imminent".Constable Andy Jehan, the minister with responsibility for sport, said: "We need to sit down around a table and find a solution." Jehan said he welcomed seeing people who were passionate about sports at the said the government had "accommodated" late requests for change from the association, including moving the show the JNA said the 27 hours a month offered Oakfield was less than a quarter of the time it gets at Les sports have also raised concerns over how the new Oakfield facility would be shared. Mrs Andrews said the decision was "devastating", adding: "We're a female sport, the second highest sport in the island, and we don't have a home."[We need] somewhere that we can call our own, we can run our own programmes, we can generate our own income."Mrs Andrews said the association had been going for 80 years and had seen many participate in its programmes."That's all going to be crushed," she said."We know the impact that we have on all these youngsters." Samantha Salzone, JNA netball development officer, the size of the turnout showed "how big netball is on the island"."The girls here that have come along today are the ones that are going to get impacted, it's the school age girls that are going to lose their pathways," she said."This is a sporting crisis across the island - over the last few years you've seen a reduction of facilities," she said.