Wakanoho begs to return to sumo

Wednesday 10th September, 07:24 AM JST

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escape_artist at 12:13 PM JST - 10th September

Grrr... JT, please fix your commenting software. Here's that link again from the Daily Yomiuri, without the comma automagically tacked on as somehow part of the URL...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20080910TDY24303.htm
tokyokitty at 12:17 PM JST - 10th September

Everyone makes mistakes as we are not perfect but rule is rule but a lifetime ban is a bit too much.. Anyway he's young he has the future ahead of him. Good luck Wakanoho!
Blue_Tiger at 02:54 PM JST - 10th September

Here's my take on this situation: why not give him another shot? Reinstate him (because, after all, he did fess up), give him a second chance, and let him compete. However, if he even comes within a hudred meters of a marijuana plant, cigarette, or even anything that smells like mary j, ban him for good. Other pro-sports have a second-chance drug policy, why not sumo? If people like Jason Giambi can still play in the majors despite confessing to using steroids, why not sumo, too, with marijuana (and I seriously doubt that marijuana is going to enhance sumo performance)?
RomeoRamenII at 03:35 PM JST - 10th September

Wakanoho should join a sumo association in Amsterdam or canada. Those places have no ploblem with drug fiends.

RR
mayabe at 04:00 PM JST - 10th September

I agree with you RomeoRamenll ! Lol
bushlover at 04:21 PM JST - 10th September

Let him start his own sumo league in Russia. Sayonara Ivan.
dennis0bauer at 04:35 PM JST - 10th September

If he used the japanese drug sake then it would have not been a problem, Exit the russians who is next on the hitlist?
ThonTaddeo at 09:45 PM JST - 10th September

JT, can you please show these sumo wrestlers some respect and print their names correctly?

Soslan is his given name, Alexandrovich is his patronymic (derived from his father's name), and Gagloev is his surname. He should be referred to as Soslan Gagloev, or if the patronymic must be included, Soslan Alexandrovich Gagloev. There's no excuse for writing his name, and the names of the other Russian wrestlers involved in controversy, in the irrational surname-first-middle order. Shall we expect stories about "Obama Barack Hussein" and "Palin Sara Louise Heath" next?
ExPrinceska at 10:19 PM JST - 10th September

thontaddeo,

the names in the articles about the Russian smo wrestlers are written correctly because surname-first-middle name is the official name order used in russian pasports. I think it is ok to write them in this order although what you suggested is also correct.
ExPrinceska at 10:23 PM JST - 10th September

I think he should be given a punishment according to the interntional sport rules. If an athlete is caught for the first time with stimulants, then the punishment is 2 years. After 2 years he can return to sumo, he is still very young and obviously talented. Any young man deserves a second chance, because he was not an adult at the time of the mistake.
YadotNapaj at 11:36 PM JST - 10th September

Great article by James Hardy.

Does Sumo have a policy for testing for HGH?

That is surely more important than banning a guy for smoking a little weed.

There were a couple of Yokuzuna that are now stablemasters that showed the same type of muscle growth as Bonds, McGuire, and Sosa did back in their day.

If Sumo does not have any system for testing HGH it is so similar to MLB circa 1998.

If anyone knows what the official policy of the Sumo Association is for HGH please advise.
bdaniel08 at 05:17 PM JST - 11th September

You are speaking about former yokozuna Chiyonofuji...Lol
ThonTaddeo at 10:06 PM JST - 11th September

ExPrinceska, the order in which the items are listed in the passport is irrelevant -- almost all countries put the surname first in a passport, but in speech and writing, the surname never goes first. I'm guessing that Japanese investigators just copied the names off the all-important alien card, and that JT simply repeated them without bothering to actually learn which name was which.

A similar problem occurred in the incident a few months ago when an American who complained about the noise in a nightclub was killed by a DJ. I think his name is Mr. Tucker, but it was presented every which way in the news, and since his given name was also a common surname and vice versa, you couldn't even tell who the man was.

At least in this case an even mildly-competent editor should be able to determine which name is which, because in Russian the endings reveal which is the given name, which is the patronymic, and which is the family name.

Get it right, JT and Kyodo News. You hve a duty to the subjects of your stories.
ExPrinceska at 01:08 AM JST - 12th September

ThonTaddeo,

i think that they listed the names of the wrestlers in the official passport order because they are criminals according to the Japanese laws or if not criminals, offenders of the law.
sarcasm123 at 11:09 AM JST - 18th September

Is it a coincidence that there are no new stories here about this case, now that it seems to become more and more interesting? :P