QUOTE
Free running leaps onto world stage
The urban sport of free running will take a new leap into the public arena next week when London hosts the first world championships.
The sport - or art form, as some call it - was born in the suburbs of France in the late 1980s but became famous through films like the last James Bond adventure Casino Royale, which opens with a spectacular free running chase.
Free runners from around the world gather next Wednesday to test their skills in the adrenalin charged pastime, which involves somersaulting from balconies, leaping from building to building, and generally defying gravity.
It is not known if this will include Australians trying to beat the British at yet another sport.
The championships are bound to attract attention, but free runners insist the sport - also known as parkour, or PK, after the French parcours du combatant, or obstacle course - will not be going mainstream anytime soon.
"Free running is unlikely to be at the Olympics - that is based on too rigid a state of mind," said EZ, a Briton who is organising the world championships.
"There will be no judges dressed in suits. It's the free runners who will judge themselves," he stressed.
The scoring criteria would focus on "the flow" shown by competitors.
Although EZ described regular town and city streets as "free runners' heaven," the championships, sponsored by several major international brands, will be held at an indoor course.
Athletes from Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and the US will be among those taking part. The organisers hope spectators will pay 20 pounds ($A42.40) to watch a sport which can also be seen on the streets free.
During the event, each competitor - with only a pair of trainers for assistance - will have 90 seconds to dazzle judges with a routine likely to be inspired by martial arts, skateboarding and their own imaginations.
Cali, a 27-year-old free runner from France, is one of those who will take part. He grew up learning taekwondo and hip-hop dance but switched disciplines after he seeing free runners in action.
"When I saw those guys jumping off roofs, I knew it was what I wanted to do," he said.
Cali is now a full-time free runner, living off sponsorship and fees from shooting advertisements.
This, along with cinema, is how most people first hear about free running.
As well as 2006's Casino Royale - for which Bond actor Daniel Craig reportedly had to learn parkour - the sport's profile was raised by Jump Britain, a 2005 British documentary, while in France director Luc Besson's Yamakasi (2001) also features the sport.
And it is not only kids on the streets who are trying it out - EZ says he has organised courses in free running for Britain's Royal Marines, although his favourite memory is holding a course in the gardens of a Tokyo temple.
The likes of EZ may have turned professional but the aim of the game remains the same, he insisted.
"It's all about having fun," he said. "Everybody can do it. All you need is a good pair of shoes and an open mind."
The urban sport of free running will take a new leap into the public arena next week when London hosts the first world championships.
The sport - or art form, as some call it - was born in the suburbs of France in the late 1980s but became famous through films like the last James Bond adventure Casino Royale, which opens with a spectacular free running chase.
Free runners from around the world gather next Wednesday to test their skills in the adrenalin charged pastime, which involves somersaulting from balconies, leaping from building to building, and generally defying gravity.
It is not known if this will include Australians trying to beat the British at yet another sport.
The championships are bound to attract attention, but free runners insist the sport - also known as parkour, or PK, after the French parcours du combatant, or obstacle course - will not be going mainstream anytime soon.
"Free running is unlikely to be at the Olympics - that is based on too rigid a state of mind," said EZ, a Briton who is organising the world championships.
"There will be no judges dressed in suits. It's the free runners who will judge themselves," he stressed.
The scoring criteria would focus on "the flow" shown by competitors.
Although EZ described regular town and city streets as "free runners' heaven," the championships, sponsored by several major international brands, will be held at an indoor course.
Athletes from Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and the US will be among those taking part. The organisers hope spectators will pay 20 pounds ($A42.40) to watch a sport which can also be seen on the streets free.
During the event, each competitor - with only a pair of trainers for assistance - will have 90 seconds to dazzle judges with a routine likely to be inspired by martial arts, skateboarding and their own imaginations.
Cali, a 27-year-old free runner from France, is one of those who will take part. He grew up learning taekwondo and hip-hop dance but switched disciplines after he seeing free runners in action.
"When I saw those guys jumping off roofs, I knew it was what I wanted to do," he said.
Cali is now a full-time free runner, living off sponsorship and fees from shooting advertisements.
This, along with cinema, is how most people first hear about free running.
As well as 2006's Casino Royale - for which Bond actor Daniel Craig reportedly had to learn parkour - the sport's profile was raised by Jump Britain, a 2005 British documentary, while in France director Luc Besson's Yamakasi (2001) also features the sport.
And it is not only kids on the streets who are trying it out - EZ says he has organised courses in free running for Britain's Royal Marines, although his favourite memory is holding a course in the gardens of a Tokyo temple.
The likes of EZ may have turned professional but the aim of the game remains the same, he insisted.
"It's all about having fun," he said. "Everybody can do it. All you need is a good pair of shoes and an open mind."
You've all probably seen it before. Basically people running wild on the streets
Check this out. Music sucks but there's some neat stuff
Anybody ever tried it?
) but I've always enjoyed watching snippets of it.
... I think how we have both become very multicultural nations, a majority of us don't give a f*ck.