A CAMPAIGN calling for a dedicated Parkour training ground in Bournemouth has received the support of the town’s mayor.

As recently reported in the Daily Echo, a local Parkour team is hoping the council will help them find a dedicated place to practice their sport.

Parkour, and the related discipline of free-running, are based on leaps, jumps and tumbles through the urban environment. Participants learn to pass obstacles by running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, leaping and rolling. It uses no equipment and is non-competitive and is growing in popularity Cllr Philip Stanley-Watts, the current mayor of Bournemouth, said he fully expects Parkour or free-running to become an Olympic sport in the future.

A keen athlete, who has represented Bournemouth, Dorset and England in athletics, marathons and long-distance running, he said he was eager to help the Parkour enthusiasts in any way he can.

“I’m fully supportive of them and their aims,” he said. “I would very much like to see a training ground for free-running. I used to do it in a more basic format, completing 10-mile obstacle courses in Aldershot, so I know a little bit about it.

“Free-running can be spectacular, it is almost like being at the circus, the people doing it are like acrobats really.

“I’m all for young people doing any kind of activity or sport and if they want to find a training base then I think Bournemouth should help them.

“ I will be speaking to the relevant people at the council and seeing if I can help in any way.”