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Kyuta Kumagai: concentration, tension, attack
Photo:
KIM KYUNG-HOON / REUTERS
Kyuta Kumagai is different from boys of the same age.
While many of his peers spend most of their time in front of the computer or meeting friends, the ten-year-old sumo wrestler trains six days a week.
And something else is special about him: on average, ten-year-old boys weigh 30 and 40 kilograms.
Kyuta Kumagai's weight is 85 kilos.
In 2019, Kyuta Kumagai became sumo world champion in the under ten category, according to the Reuters news agency, which visited the young athlete in Japan.
For this success he has to subordinate his life to popular sport.
He trains hard with his father, either at the sumo club in Fukagawa, Tokyo, in the swimming pool or on the track.
To do this, he lifts weights.
Since winning a tournament in kindergarten, he has been training systematically.
Drill, hardship, violence
"I don't think he's under too much pressure," his father Taisuke, who also used to be a sumo wrestler, told Reuters journalists.
"He also has time for himself and to play with his friends." During training, however, the father sometimes pushes his son so hard that he is breathless and cries.
But Taisuke believes this is the only way to get the best out of his son, according to Reuters journalists.
True to the sumo motto: "Suffering makes you strong."
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