JAPAN/ MONGOLIA: Stressed-out sumo grand champion Asashoryu leaves Japan for Mongolia

A down-trodden grand sumo champion leaves Japan for his home in Mongolia for psychiatric treatment. A Grim-looking sumo grand champion Asashoryu left Japan on Wednesday (August 29) to return to his home country of Mongolia after being diagnosed as close to depression. He's been seeing psychiatrists following his suspension for playing soccer while out of wrestling action with a back injury. On Wednesday, Asashoryu walked past about 250 reporters and photographers who stormed to the airport, chasing him. "Grand Champion! Are you abandoning your ring name Asashoryu? Are you leaving us without a word of explanation? How about your accountability as grand champion?" one Japanese reporter shouted as Asashoryu walked past him on the moving walkway. Asashoryu didn't say a word. In an emergency meeting on Tuesday (August 28), officials of the ancient Japanese sport gave the go-ahead for the 150 kg (330 lb) Asashoryu to travel, ending weeks of wrangling that had received blow-by-blow coverage by the media. The fate of the 26-year-old had been clouded since he infuriated the Japan Sumo Association by turning out for a charity soccer match in his native Mongolia in July despite having withdrawn from a regional sumo tour with a back injury. Officials handed the wrestler a two-tournament suspension, forcing him to miss events next month and in November, while insisting he sat out the ban in Japan. He has not commented in public since. Earlier this month, a psychiatrist diagnosed Asashoryu, whose real name is Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj, as being one step away from clinical depression and recommended he be allowed to travel to his home in Mongolia. However, the wrestler had been stuck in Tokyo since, with swarms of media outside his home while his "stable" elder Takasago urged him to apologise in public and senior sumo officials insisted he undergo treatment in Japan. Crowds of fans and journalists gathered at the Mongolian Ulan Bator's airport to welcome their champion. Mongolian fans have been following their champions' japanese saga with passion. They massively support him against the Japan Sumo association. "I think he is being discriminated. It is a personal matter weather to play football or not", a 40 years old herder said. "They are using it up to get rid of him", he added. "The punishment is too much. They should have either banned him from one tournament or cut his salary," a 40 years old housewife said. Promoted to the highest rank of "yokozuna" in 2003, Asashoryu has been hailed as one of the greatest wrestlers of his generation but his short temper and breaches of protocol have sparked anger in the conservative world of sumo. Asashoryu has been disqualified for pulling an opponent's hair, criticised for complaining to judges after losing a decision and accused of breaking a side mirror of a rival's car. Footage last month of the heavyweight sprinting around the pitch in a red soccer shirt further dismayed fans of sumo, for which pageantry and sense of dignity play almost as big a role as the giants who tussle in the rope-lined dirt ring. The issue divided members of the public. Yokozuna hold an almost god-like status in a sport that dates back 2,000 years and remains imbued with Shinto religious overtones. Despite sumo's popularity, especially among the older generation, fewer young Japanese men are showing an interest in becoming wrestlers in recent years, discouraged by the rigours of training and the slim chance of hitting the big time. That has opened up the ring to wrestlers from Mongolia, Russia and South America, although some Japanese are dissatisfied with the scarcity of native-born champions. Sumo has not had a Japanese grand champion since the wildly popular Takanohana retired in 2003 and currently the only other yokozuna is another Mongolian, Hakuho, a soft-spoken 22-year-old who fans hope can live up to the title's strict code

ITN Source | August 30, 2007

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