Changing room chat: Sumo punishment was out of bounds

A SUMO gym chief who beat wrestlers with a golf club got a severe dressing-down yesterday in the latest twist to a year of scandal for the ancient Japanese sport. Kasugano, 49, beat three young wrestlers for breaking a curfew and not wearing traditional kimono outside.

“I went too far hitting them with a golf club,” a contrite Kasugano said. “I realise that and have told the lads I won’t raise a fist to them again.”

In another embarrassing year for sumo, the sport was pulled from television after government pressure following a damaging match-fixing scandal. Sumo officials had actually banned wrestlers from playing golf after holding a first tournament last month since a sting operation led to 25 wrestlers and trainers being fired. The Japan Sumo Association failed to appreciate the irony with chairman Hanaregoma barking: “Taking a golf club to them is way over the line.”

Sumo had been flirting with a public relations disaster since Mongolian firebrand Asashoryu broke every rule in the book. Playing football while supposedly injured and brawling naked with rivals in communal bathrooms saw him forced out of the sport.