Police called in at sumo contest in Alabama after contentious disqualification sparks chaos
A reporter called the disqualification ‘the harshest unsportsmanlike conduct penalty I’ve ever seen’
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Your support makes all the difference.Police had to be called to a sumo contest in Birmingham, Alabama, after an Egyptian wrestler was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct after celebrating his win with a backflip.
The disqualification prompted outrage from the Egyptian coach, leading to a chaotic scene.
Last week, Wrestler Abdelrahman Elsefy, 23, refused to exit the ring after his victory and subsequent disqualification. His coach, former wrestler Ōsunaarashi Kintarō, yelled in frustration for the next few minutes, according to AL.com columnist Joseph Goodman.
“It wasn’t an act, but the guy was a character all the same,” Mr Goodman wrote. Watching the chaos from mere feet away, Mr Goodman noted that Mr Kintarō “even took off his shirt”.
Mr Kintarō stepped into the ring, called the dohyō, which led to strong pushback from the announcer.
Footage from the scene showed at least five officers around Mr Kintarō as they tried to get him away from the mat as he carried on shouting.
The audience at the Boutwell Auditorium yelled in frustration at the ruling and started chanting in support of the Egyptians. A writer for The Ringer said it was “the harshest unsportsmanlike conduct penalty I’ve ever seen”.
The World Games include a number of sports that are not part of the Olympic Games. The games started on Thursday in Birmingham and include sumo wrestling, tug-of-war, roller-skating, and korfball.
In the lightweight sumo match for the championship on Saturday, Mr Elsefy went up against Demid Karachenko of Ukraine.
Following Mr Elsefy’s disqualification, Mr Karachenko was named the winner, but the ruling was later overturned following the outrage from Mr Kintarō and the audience.
In the rematch between Mr Elsefy and Mr Karachenko, the wrestler brought each other out of the ring, prompting the judges to name the Ukrainian as the winner, 1819 News reported.
But after replays showed Mr Karachenko’s foot touching the mat outside of the ring first, Mr Elsefy was declared victorious.
“I knew I was going to win again,” the Egyptian told Mr Goodman.
Mr Karachenko was awarded the silver while fellow Ukrainian Sviatoslav Semykras won the bronze.
When he got on top of the podium, Mr Elsefy simply raised a fist to note his win.
“He’s my dude,” Mr Kintarō told Mr Goodman, but he added that he started coaching the Egyptian sumo team the previous evening.
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