[sumo] Sumo wrestlers to be drug tested

[Barbara]

Sumo elite attend anti-doping summit
Original article at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/22/2169619.htm?section=world

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ABC News, By Shane McLeod
It is no secret that to get ahead in sumo, it helps to be able to throw 
your weight around.

But there have been increasing concerns about how the top wrestlers in 
the sport bulk up. Rumours of performance-enhancing drugs have swirled 
around sumo for years.

Japan's Vice-Minister for Education, Sport and Culture, Kenshiro 
Matsunami, says it is time sumo to act to clean up its reputation.

"It's a big problem," Mr Matsunami admitted.

"It's a sport that uses the size of the body as a weapon, so there's a 
danger they will use drugs to make their bodies bigger. And they 
shouldn't use those drugs. They will damage their health as a consequence."

The health and wellbeing of wrestlers is usually the responsibility of 
the so-called 'stable masters', who cultivate the champions.

Professor Yohei Onishi from Tokyo's Keio University has been a sumo 
health consultant for 18 years.

He has been working to prepare the sport for the drug-testing demands of 
the modern world - convening a four-day summit of 900 wrestlers, stable 
masters, stable masters' wives and officials to prepare for the 
introduction of a new drug testing system later this year.

"I've been talking to everybody throughout the Sumo Association. That 
includes wrestlers from as young as 15 years old," Professor Onishi said.

"It's the stable masters and their wives who are taking care of the 
wrestlers' health, in what's a pretty closed society. I've told them I 
need their co-operation to get rid of these drugs."

Professor Onishi says it is impossible to know how much drug taking 
there is in the sumo world, because testing has never been conducted before.

The all-powerful Sumo Association has not yet decided what the penalties 
will be for those found to be using performance enhancing drugs.

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Posted by Barbara Murasakihana