Apr 30 (Japan Today) - Twenty-eight-year-old sumo wrestler Hibikiryu has died of acute respiratory failure after hitting his head during the sport's last grand tournament in March, the Japan Sumo Association announced Thursday.
Hibikiryu, whose real name was Mitsuki Amano, died on Wednesday at a Tokyo hospital. The wrestler, in the fourth-tier sandanme division, was injured in a loss on March 26, when he was stretchered off the ring at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan and hospitalized.
He is the first active wrestler to die since last May, when another sandanme grappler, Shobushi, died of multiple organ failure after he became infected with the novel coronavirus and developed pneumonia.
A death due to a ring-related injury is extremely rare.
