The national championships for the emerging urban sport of parkour will be held spectator-free inside an airport terminal building in Tokyo next month, the Japan Gymnastics Association said.
Male and female athletes will show off their acrobatic abilities in parkour's two main disciplines, speed run and freestyle, in the International Gymnastics Federation-approved event on Dec. 19 at Haneda Airport's Terminal 2 building.
Organizers said Monday they will construct a bespoke course at Haneda for the high-energy, street-based discipline that involves running, climbing and jumping over obstacles either in the urban environment or an area designed to replicate it.
The aim of the sport is to navigate through areas as efficiently, smoothly and gracefully as possible with nothing to aid apart from the limbs of the body.
The FIG proposed parkour for inclusion at the 2024 Paris Games but its application was rejected by the International Olympic Committee.
Hiroshima staged the first official parkour competition organized by the gymnastics body in April 2018. Parkour became an official FIG discipline in December that year.