the pavilion Navarre Arena de Pamplona hosts this Saturday the day of classifications of the Parkour Spanish Championshipthe first to be officially developed under the mantle of the Royal Spanish Gymnastics Federation (RFEG) after this sport was included in the federation’s calendar in 2018 in the category of non-Olympic specialties.
During the morning the qualifying rounds were carried out in the ‘speed’ modality, and during the afternoon those of the ‘freestyle’ modality, both in all its categories: Children, Under 17 and Absolute, both male and female.
In the case of women, the children’s and Under 17 categories have been unified since, according to the RFEG, “for the moment, female participation is still quite low.”
Among the female participants, the presence of the Colombian-Spanish athlete Stefy Navarro, a reference figure in international competition parkour and who won the silver medal in the first Parkour World Championships held last month in Tokyo, stood out.
Navarro, known on the circuit and on her social networks as ‘stefymadness’, has competed in both the ‘freestyle’ and ‘speed’ modalities, in which she has ranked first, with a time of around 40 seconds, a mark far from the 35.02 seconds he achieved in the Japanese capital.
For his part, in the men’s category, one of the most popular names has been that of Aaron Vivar, who achieved 18th place in Japan in ‘Freestyle’, his specialty, and who this Saturday has also competed in both modalities.
Another of the most outstanding competitors has been Hector Martínez with a time of 31.214 in the absolute masculine during the morning classification.
The only competition that has concluded this same Saturday has been that of Parkour Kids, for which a route adapted to younger children has been prepared.
In total, 153 athletes from 12 clubs have participatedalthough some of them were independent athletes affiliated with the RFEG, in a first day without incident and that has left the ground prepared for the final round that will take place tomorrow, Sunday.
YOUNG AUDIENCE
The parkour development coordinator in the federation, Simon Richman, highlighted the reception of this first day, with a particularly young audience, and he was convinced that this Sunday “will be even bigger”.
Richman has pointed out that parkour “is a well-known activity” and from the federation they want to turn it into a discipline, “that people associate it not only with a competition, but with a spectacular activity.”
“We want to improve the offer of the competition and the development of parkour for all ages, but above all to ensure the future of this sport, we are convinced that it will be Olympic in Los Angeles 2028, so we must show that there is a structure and an organization behind it”, Richardson pointed out.
The championship will conclude this Sunday with the finals of each modality and category starting at 10:00 am and will close with the awards ceremony in the afternoon.
Last year the Navarra Arena pavilion already hosted a competition of this type with the Parkour Spain Series 2021, the first to be organized since the RFEG.
