Japan send home basketball players for ‘night with women’

JAKARTA, Monday: Japan have sent home four players from their Asian Games men’s basketball team for spending the night with women in a Jakarta hotel, delegation head Yasuhiro Yamashita said on Monday.

The players left the athletes’ village following their game against Qatar on Thursday to eat at a restaurant where they met a Japanese-speaking local, who told them about a bar where they could meet women, Yamashita told a news conference. The quartet, who were wearing their team uniforms, spent a couple of hours at the bar before checking into a hotel with four women, staying there until Friday morning, he added. Officials named the players as Takuya Hashimoto, Keita Imamura, Yuya Nagayoshi and Takuma Sato. “The Japan Olympic Committee decided to withdraw their accreditation and

send them back to Japan early this morning,” Yamashita said.

“We have a specific disciplinary code, it’s a clear breach of the code of conduct for the Japanese delegation. The athletes should be role models of society, not only in the sporting venues but also on other occasions.” AFP