As part of the monthly Airlebnis Sundays at Düsseldorf Airport, Germany’s best freerunners and traceurs will be displaying their talent on 6 June 2010 in the middle of the terminal. From 10 am till 6 pm on departure level Area C there will be a competition for the title ‘Germany’s best parkour athlete’. The reigning world champion will be there at the start. With professional guidance, visitors will have the opportunity to learn their own first tricks on the training obstacles.

There will be two competitions.  In the Speed Contest the obstacle course specially constructed for the parkour has to be covered as quickly as possible, but in the Style Contest a jury will evaluate performances by execution, flow, character, creativity and degree of difficulty. The competition is taking place in a knockout format.

The 15-year-old world champion Waldemar Müller will be a guest, and with his victory the youngster put America’s and England’s top athletes in their place.

The spaciousness of the airport terminal - 20 metres high and 400 metres long - and the fact that it has won prizes for its architecture will be a further highlight both for spectators and athletes, the space lending itself to unusual and spectacular parkour courses.

As on the first Sunday of every month from 11 am till 6 pm, the franchise holders at the airport’s arcades and travel agents have again put together an attractive programme and fantastic offers for shopping, enjoyment and travel. There will also be free guided tours of the apron and reduced prices for access to the spectator terraces, 1 Euro per adult and 3 Euros for families with no limit to the number of children. You can also make use of the Parkspecial and leave your car at the airport for three hours for the price of just one. To do so you need to exchange your entrance ticket at the ‘Airlebnis Infopoint’ on departure level B next to the escalator.

With its scheme ‘Sie buchen – wir zahlen’ [You book – we pay], the Reisemarkt is making a very attractive offer: for one lucky customer booking a holiday on the day, Reisemarkt will retrospectively pay for the holiday in full. ‘Einmal shoppen – doppelt gewinnen’ [Shop once – win twice], is a new promotion in which, with a bit of luck, visitors to the airport arcades can win vouchers worth twice the value of their purchase. Further prizes and fun for the children are promised by taking part in the Airport Rally, with a bouncy castle, face painting - and art and craft and a skills area.

Background information on parkour as a sport

Parkour is the name of the new way of moving across the urban landscape. This new sports trend has its roots on the Caribbean island of Martinique. The French naval officer Georges Hébert organised the escape from a volcanic eruption and thus saved 700 people’s lives and this gave rise to a special form of physical and intellectual training in nature, the so-called méthode naturelle.

Based on this method, today’s athletes try to find the most efficient way through the city environment. Body control and creativity play just as important a role as jumping ability and stamina. Obstacles of all sorts are surmounted by means of clever tricks and elegant techniques.

Parkour can be seen as an alternative, artistic and acrobatic form of movement, but with parkour style which counts just as much as speed.

Since it began, this form of movement has thrilled thousands of sportsmen and millions of spectators worldwide.