Team GB’s youngest boxer at these Games overcame nerves at Tokyo’s famous sumo venue
The clay dohyo ring had made way for a sprung floor, the judges preferred T-shirts and jeans to ceremonial kimono, and, overhead, a boom camera rotated in the space usually reserved for a wooden roof resembling a Shinto shrine.
A stage made for exponents of Japan’s ancient sport of sumo wrestling has been taken over by Olympic boxers as they vie for medals on the same hallowed ground that has witnessed triumphs by yokozuna grand champions, tear-stained retirement ceremonies and upsets greeted by the hurling of seat cushions from the crowd.
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