<div dir="ltr">Without the annoying blank spaces:<div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">He arrived in Japan from Mongolia at the age of 15 and became,
by many measures, the most successful sumo wrestler of all time in a tradition
stretching back more than a millennium.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Now<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2019/03/26/story-hakuho-sho-skinny-kid-mongolia-became-greatest-sumo/"><span style="color:rgb(4,119,123)"> Hakuho Sho</span></a> is going head to head
with a conservative Japanese establishment reluctant to let him open his own
training “stable” in retirement - a controversy that has sparked a conversation
around xenophobia in the national sport. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Hakuho, 36, retired from sumo last month after being plagued by
persistent knee injuries. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Commentators compared the 6ft 4in star, who had a peak fighting
weight of 348lb, to Pele in football or Michael Jordan in basketball, whose
absence would leave a void at the centre of wrestling.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">But along with his achievements - including 45 championship
victories, the most wins in a calendar year, and being the longest serving top
rank “yokozuna” wrestler of all time - he earned a reputation as a “bad boy”
for his apparent breaches of etiquette in the ring.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Along with challenging referee calls, his style of fighting has
come in for criticism. Some saw him simply as a rough-house wrestler who was
not averse to slapping an opponent’s face and a move that came perilously close
to a banned elbow strike.   </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Normally a retiring “yokozuna” would be granted permission to
open a stable on retirement as a matter of course. However, the Japanese Sumo
Association (JSA) seems to be doing all it can to avoid that outcome for
Hakuho.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Leaks from the September 29 meeting of the six-man JSA panel
that considers applications for wrestlers who wish to remain in the sport have
found their way into the Japanese tabloids. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">One JSA member expressed concern that Hakuho could look to build
on his already close ties to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/16/japan-grapples-sumo-scandal-veiled-underbelly-sacred-sport-exposed/"><span style="color:rgb(4,119,123)">other Mongolian wrestlers</span></a> and elders to
construct a “future power block” within the sport. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background:rgb(248,248,248);vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(73,73,73)"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Others warned that Hakuho might bring the “bad boy” attitude
from his fighting career into retirement.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The panel has recommended that Hakuho not be permitted to open
his own stable for 10 years. One member was quoted as saying that Hakuho was
“reaping what he sowed”.  </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">While Hakuho has kept an unusually low profile and has not
commented publicly on the matter, others have linked the reported decision to
wider problems in the national sport.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">“Hakuho certainly upset a lot of people when he was a wrestler
and they are worried that he will do the same if he is allowed to run his own
stable”, said Yoichi Igawa, a journalist who covers a sport that can trace its
history back some 1,300 years. </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">“The sumo world is very exclusionary because its elders are
deeply traditional and only want things to be done in the ‘Japanese way’,” he
said.  </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">“A wrestler’s nationality is a big issue, even if they have
legally taken Japanese nationality, and there is all too often the sense that a
foreigner is not able to understand all the traditions that surround the
sport.”</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.25in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">“They will do everything they can to stop Hakuho gaining more
influence in the sumo world, claiming that it is because of his disciplinary
record”. </span></p>

<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">In an editorial, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said: “There is nothing
wrong about debating what ‘yokozuna’ should and should not do. But the problem
is that many critics of Hakuho trace his ‘unsavoury’ behaviour to his Mongolian
roots and question the qualities of foreign sumo wrestlers in general.”</span><br></div><div><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Credit to The Telegraph</span></div></div>