Barnsley sumo club owner urges women to take up the sport

A man who brought a sumo club to Barnsley has said he hopes to encourage more women to take up the sport.

Richard Riggs set up Barnsley Sumo Club in 2024 after “looking for something interesting to do”.

Riggs, who previously played rugby, ended up competing for Great Britain in the World Sumo Championships and became the Team GB national coach.

The 36-year-old said he wanted more diversity within his club, adding: “Sumo is for everyone. It really is one of the most, if not the most, accessible martial art.”

Sumo is a style of wrestling that originated in ancient Japan.

The first wrestler to touch the ground with any part of the body other than the soles of the feet, or to exit the ring, loses.

Riggs’ sister, Kirsty, has become the first, and so far only, female member of the club in Barnsley.

She said the sport was not what she had expected it to be.

“It gives you a bit more flexibility, more power. You’re working different muscles than you would be going to the gym, so it’s completely different,” she explained.

Her brother agreed, saying sumo was great for strength and body confidence.

“Just getting to understand how your body works in those kind of situations is a really important thing that people might not have the opportunity to do in day-to-day life sat at a desk,” Riggs said.

Jackie Bates, who was considered Britain’s only woman sumo wrestler at an international level back in the early 2000s, said the sport saved her life.

Now aged 70, she recalled being placed in a coma after contracting coronavirus in 2020.

“They didn’t think I’d make it because I was 22.5st [142kg],” said Bates, who lives in Derby.

“I think it was the sumo in me that got me through. When I came out of that coma, I couldn’t lift a cup of tea because you lose all your muscles.

“I just overcame it all because it was just like training again.”

Bates, who is now retired, won a silver medal for Britain at the first Sumo World Cup in Rotterdam in 2003 and also fought in Japan and elsewhere in Europe.

She described the sport as “a bit like chess”, saying it had enabled her to travel the world and meet people from “all walks of life”.

She said she had enjoyed “flying the flag for Britain” and hoped she had helped pave the way for other female sumo wrestlers.

“I know that sumo will become an Olympic sport eventually,” she said, adding that now was the time for other women “to shine” in the sport.

Bates was trained by Steve Pateman alongside Adele Jones, another athlete who was looking for a challenge.

Within months of signing up in 2006, Jones went to compete in the World Cup tournament in Japan, something she described as “the most surreal thing I’ve ever done”.

Hoping to demystify the sport, Jones, who is also based in Derby, explained women did not wear the traditional minimal outfit one might associate with sumo.

Instead, they wear a modest training suit with arms and legs covered and the traditional loincloth, called a mawashi.

The 56-year-old stressed amateur sumo was for anyone, adding: “It’s not necessarily about being strong, it’s about mind and body.

“It’s good for the soul, it’s good inner strength.”

Jones said that when she started her sumo career some 20 years ago, she found herself in a largely supportive environment.

However, she said she occasionally faced scepticism, with some suggesting she was doing it “for the telly”.

“I went, ‘do you really think that I would be wearing a lycra suit and a nappy just for 15 minutes of fame?’

“‘I’ll just do it even more just because of how rude you are’.”

Back in Barnsley, Riggs said he hoped more women would take up the the sport.

He said that sumo often attracted people from backgrounds in rugby, martial arts and CrossFit.

“It suits anyone of any background,” he said.

“Anything that’s active and you don’t mind running into people.”