TOKYO—Four Japanese basketballers who were sent home from the Asian Games for hiring prostitutes while on a night out in Jakarta have been suspended from playing for one year.
Yuko Mitsuya, the head of the Japan Basketball Association (JBA), bowed in apology before making the announcement at a Wednesday news conference in Tokyo.
“They lacked the sense of pride and responsibility that players in the Japanese delegation should have,” she said.
Mitsuya, an ex-Olympic volleyball player, said her salary would be cut 10 percent for three months, and that the salaries of three other JBA officials would be cut by the same amount for two months.
The four players—Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuya Hashimoto, Takuma Sato and Keita Imamura—were kicked off Japan’s Asian Games team and sent home from Indonesia on August 20.
They were wearing Japan-emblazoned uniforms when they hooked up with prostitutes after eating and drinking in an entertainment district, Japanese officials said. The incident came to light after a newspaper published photographs of the players out on the town.
“This is a very foolish and disappointing problem, but the truth cannot be changed,” Mitsuya said. “So I think it is our top challenge to learn and grow from this problem.”
The eight remaining players on the Japan squad have continued to compete in the Asian Games.
After missing out on the medal round, Japan lost 113-80 to the Philippines and was relegated to a playoff for seventh place against Indonesia.
Japan Coach Herman Mandole said playing with two-thirds of a regular roster had been difficult, but the remaining eight players were staying strong.
Japanese teenagers Sakura Yosozumi and Kensuke Sasaoke, meanwhile, provided a next-generation entrée to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with gold medals at the Asian Games—in skateboarding.
The 16-year-old Yosozumi, an X Games and Park Series Pro Tour medalist, won the women’s park final at Jakabaring Sport City in Palembang, which is cohosting the Asian Games with Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
She beat Japan teammate Kaya Isa, with Zhang Xin of China collecting bronze. The 12-year-old Bunga Nyimas placed fourth for Indonesia.
Nyimas upgraded that later Wednesday when she won bronze in the women’s street final behind Margie Didal of Philippines and Isa, who took silver for a second time.
And Nyimas wasn’t even the youngest competitor in the field. Her Indonesian teammate, 9-year-old Aliqqa Novvery, placed sixth in the eight-person final, narrowly in front of 33-year-old Chu Pei-yu of Taiwan.
On the men’s side, 19-year-old Sasaoka scored enough on his second run to hold out Indonesians Jason Dennis Lijnzaat and Pevi Permana Putra for gold in the men’s park final.
World Cup skateboarding bronze medalist Keyaki Ike won the men’s street final for Japan from Sanggoe Darma Tanjung of Indonesia and South Korea’s Eun Ju-won.
Skateboarding will debut on the sports program at the Olympics in Tokyo, with street and park disciplines on the schedule. The street courses contain stairs, rails, ramps and lots of concrete. The park competition is staged in a bowl.
Like other sports, including snowboarding and freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics, skateboarders are judged on elements including speed and the degree of difficulty and clean landings in their routines and tricks.
More than 11,000 athletes are competing at the Asian Games in 40 sports, ranging from traditional Olympic sports such as track and field and swimming to skateboarding, paragliding and jet-skiing.
Image credits: AP