Volgograd Hosts First Sumo Tournament on Student Day

On Student Day, the first competitions in the Japanese wrestling style of sumo took place in Volgograd. The regional sumo federation was established in the area not long ago, just a few months before the first contests, in the summer of last year. Since December, athletes have been preparing for the championship bout and learning the rules of this new form of wrestling for Volgograd residents.

Over 150 boys and girls participated in the competition — according to Maxim Filippov, president of the regional federation, the training of the first sumo wrestlers in the region began on the basis of judo and sambo sections, due to the great similarity of these wrestling styles. There are no separate sumo schools or sections in Volgograd and the region yet — the new martial art is just beginning to develop in the area. In the competition, boys and girls from 12 to 15 years old competed in the junior age group, and older youths from 16 to 19 years old.

«Sumo is an ancient art of Japanese wrestling, and it is from sumo that other martial arts we already know well — judo, karate, and sambo, which grew partially from Eastern martial arts — originated,» says Maxim Filippov. «The bout takes place on a platform, the dohyo — in Japan, it was traditionally made of clay and straw, but here we have modern materials. The fighters» task is to force, push the opponent out of the dohyo or make him touch the dohyo with a third point of support, for example, a hand.«

A bout usually lasts from 5 to 10 seconds — on average, the winner is determined in this time. Fighters stand behind special lines facing each other, touching the lines with both fists — from this position, they must attack the opponent and throw him off balance. For wrestling, athletes wear cotton fabric belts — called mawashi — red for one opponent and blue for the other. For the first competition, the organizers provided the belts. Boys wrestle naked from the waist up, girls in sports underwear.

According to the federation president, sumo is very similar to judo, but there are several fundamentally important differences — in sumo, wrestlers do not fight on the ground, throws, strikes, and submission holds are prohibited here.

«Strikes with an open palm to the face are allowed, but without a swing — more like a sliding of the palm on the cheek during the scuffle, but this is only for participants in the senior group, we have banned such a technique for children,» says Maxim Filippov.

Seeing sumo wrestlers only on TV screens, we have become accustomed to imagining them as huge, fear-inspiring men whom it is dangerous even to approach. Maxim Filippov explained that this is not a groundless, mass-culture-imposed stereotype, but a national characteristic of the wrestling, which is no longer mandatory outside Japan.

«Professional sumo is considered to be traditional sumo, which exists only in Japan, where the wrestlers are very large, and only men are allowed to participate in bouts. In the rest of the world, sumo is considered amateur. Here, athletes compete in completely different weight categories, and girls are allowed to practice the wrestling. Today we have weight categories from 40 to 115 kilograms, and among adults, there is a participant weighing 180 kilograms,» says Maxim Filippov.

Despite the fact that sumo is not as popular in Russia as, for example, judo or karate, it was Russian athletes who defeated the Japanese at the 2019 competitions in Vladivostok.

«This is not by chance, love for wrestling is in our blood,» says Maxim Filippov, «one could say it»s written in our DNA. In our country, martial arts have always been well developed, almost every boy practiced wrestling, our people have well-developed strength, agility, endurance, we know how to calculate strategy — all this helps us win. We will develop sumo and make it more accessible to everyone, the main thing is that young people engage in sports, not dubious walks somewhere «by the garages.»«

«We have a very strong sambo and judo school in our city, which became the base for training our sumo wrestlers. Today, the first official regional championship is taking place, which is a selection for the Russian championship, where our guys will defend the honor of our hero city among the best wrestlers in the country this spring. Then, we hope, the best will make it to the Russian national sumo team and represent our country at world competitions,» says the chief judge of the competition or gyōji, as it is called in Japanese, Oleg Repin.

Sumo wrestling became a novelty for both the athletes and their parents, especially girls. Twelve-year-old Alina previously did dancing, went to a modeling agency, and didn«t make her parents worry about dangerous hobbies, but a year ago, the girl got excited about sports and decided to take up sambo.

«We supported her, the main thing is that the child is interested. She has been doing it for a year already. When the sumo federation opened, the coach suggested we try this wrestling too,» says Anna, who came to support her daughter. «At first, she was very surprised because even in pictures, sumo wrestlers are so big, and she is so small, slender — she was afraid that she would just be crushed there. It turned out that it»s an interesting wrestling, although different from sambo, which she was used to.«

The winner among boys in his category was fifteen-year-old Vsevolod Kalmykov, a 10th-grade student. The young man has always practiced wrestling, really loved judo, and participated in competitions.

«In sumo, what»s important is not so much speed as power, strength, and tactics. I am quite large for some sports where you need to move very quickly and sharply, sumo interested me, here I«m doing pretty well, took first place. I plan to continue practicing wrestling, judo, and sumo. Next year, of course, there will be less time for training due to preparation for the Unified State Exam, but I»m not going to give up sports,« says Vsevolod.