Authority to sack sumo stable master over novice's deathTOKYO (AFP) — Japan's sumo authority plans to dismiss a stable master who admitted beating a teenage wrestler with a beer bottle a day before he suddenly died during practice, reports said Tuesday. The Japan Sumo Association is set to hold a meeting on Friday to formalise the decision to fire stable master Tokitsukaze, according to local media. Dismissal "could not be helped," association chairman Kitanoumi said Tuesday, Kyodo News reported. "We could not take a step that is more lenient." The suspicious death has dealt another blow to the image of Japan's national sport, whose stables have been dogged by allegations that senior disciples brutalise young entrants in the name of training. Dismissal would be the severest possible penalty by the sumo authority, preventing Tokitsukaze from ever returning to Japan's ancient sport. In its more than 80 year history, the sumo association has only dismissed one stable master before, in 1997 after he went missing, a spokeswoman said. Tokitsukaze has admitted he hit Takashi Saito, 17, on the knee and head with a beer bottle the day before his death, Kitanoumi said Monday, promising a severe response to the death. The stable elder has also admitted senior wrestlers assaulted the teenager, with one of them striking him on the buttocks with a baseball bat, he said. Police are reportedly seeking to press charges against the stable master and the senior wrestlers. Saito collapsed while practising with another wrestler in June in the central city of Inuyama. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead from heart failure. But after seeing the body, which reportedly had bruises, a deep cut in the forehead and burns on the legs apparently from cigarettes, his father asked for an autopsy. The autopsy could not determine the exact cause but police have said it may have been shock due to numerous wounds. Saito's father told reporters last week that Tokitsukaze initially tried to rush through the cremation of the body before the family saw it. |