THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 4, 2020 at 12:47 JST
Opening day of the 2019 Summer Grand Sumo Tournament at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Officials are leaning toward canceling the already delayed Summer Grand Sumo Tournament over continued concerns about the novel coronavirus pandemic, sources said.
The Japan Sumo Association is expected to hold a board meeting on May 4 to make a final decision on the tournament that is slated to start later this month.
The 15-day tourney was initially scheduled to begin on May 10 at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, but the association pushed back the opening day by two weeks.
Seven wrestlers and others related to the sumo world have come down with COVID-19.
The Spring Grand Sumo Tournament was held without spectators in March in Osaka.
Only two grand sumo tournaments have been canceled so far. The 1946 summer tournament was the first one scrapped due to a delay in repair work of the old Ryogoku Kokugikan. The 2011 spring tournament was canceled over a match-fixing scandal.
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