The Japan Sumo Association announced Wednesday the death of a 28-year-old sumo wrestler who was hospitalized in early April after contracting the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and lost his life to multiple organ failure.
The deceased is the Shobushi fighter of the fourth professional sumo division (Sandanme), a native of Yamanashi prefecture, west of Tokyo, and whose birth name was Kiyotaka Suetake.
Shobushi began experiencing symptoms such as fever, malaise, and respiratory failure and was admitted to a Tokyo hospital on April 8, where his COVID-19 positive was confirmed.
After his condition worsened, he was being treated in intensive care (ICU) since last April 19, and died around midnight on Wednesday due to a multi-organ failure, the sumo association said in information collected by the Japanese public network NHK.
Shobushi was the first sumo wrestler to test positive for the pathogen, a contagion confirmed publicly on April 10 and to be followed by five more: four other members and the person in charge of his "heya" (as each wrestling organization is known, under whose name they train and live), in this case Takadagawa.
The deceased wrestler debuted professionally in 2007.
The world of sports, including sumo, is suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far left more than 16,700 infections and 681 deaths recorded in Japan.
In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- more sport
More sportThe world champion of darts eliminated due to the bad signal of his wifi
Mountain racesBats, spiders and alligators: the family of runners isolated for pleasure in the jungle of Costa Rica
More sport F1, MotoGP and golf also have tests; for other sports it's almost unthinkable