Eliot Duffy, the President of the APA, has sent an open letter stating his organisation's position to FIG President Morinari Watanabe.

It follows similar moves by other national governing bodies such as the Federation de Parkour (FPK) in France, Parkour UK and the New Zealand Parkour Association (NZPA).

Earlier this week, the FIG confirmed it had given its approval in principle for a new discipline in gymnastics based on obstacle course competitions. 

"We are writing to express our objection to the recent encroachment and misappropriation of our practice by the FIG via ‘development of a related FIG discipline’ based on parkour, as detailed in their press release dated February 24, 2017," Duffy's letter states.

"Furthermore, we reject the assertions of FIG secretary general, André Gueisbuhler, regarding the history of parkour as inaccurate and ill-informed.

"We support the stance taken by Parkour UK, FPK, and the NZPA and demonstrably reject the secretary general’s notion that our community is not organised in our development of parkour.

"It is our duty to look after the rights and interests of our members across Australia and ensure that our practice is not misappropriated by FIG internationally and/or nationally by any of FIG’s National Federation members.

"As such, we assert the independence of parkour as a characteristically unique, culturally distinct and sovereign practice for which FIG is neither presently representative, nor does it have grounds to claim representation, of the international parkour community.

"We support the call to invite other national parkour communities to issue letters of support for this position and invite collaboration across the international parkour community to ensure the protection and integrity of the practice.

"Our discipline is our own."

The FIG's Executive Committee and Council approved the key stages for the discipline's formal inclusion at a recent meeting in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, with a view to organising a World Cup series in 2018 and 2019 and World Championships from 2020.

Their Presidential Commission was mandated to continue pursuing using elements of parkour in a potential new discipline following their last meeting in Lausanne in February.

The worldwide governing body announced following the meeting that the FIG Executive Committee had been given a presentation on the development of obstacle course competitions, or parcours d'obstacles, and also parkour, exhibited at last year's Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer.

However, Parkour UK accused the FIG of "encroachment and misappropriation" and requested a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) be signed, which would "formally acknowledge the recognised sovereignty of parkour/freerunning".

The organisation also threatened to take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if an MoU was not established within 60 days of Parkour UK and the FIG meeting.

In a recent Vestnik Kavkaza interview, Gueisbuhler was quoted as saying: "I'm sure the FIG is the International Federation most qualified to further develop parkour."

Following this week's announcement, the FIG moved to make a distinction between parkour and obstacle course competitions.

It is claimed that throughout the inclusion process of the new discipline, the FIG has been supported by the Mouvement International du Parkour, Freerunning et l'Art du déplacement, established in 2014 by the co-founders of parkour.

Before the Executive Committee's first decision on the issue in February, Watanabe undertook a trip to Lisses in the Paris suburbs to meet the current President of the Mouvement, Charles Perrière.

FIG expects to include two formats of competitive obstacle course events in the new discipline; obstacle course sprint, an against-the-clock format, and obstacle course freestyle based on performances that will be judged.

It is claimed the courses for these competitions, while mainly artificial, are based on real-world shapes found in urban and natural environments.

The first event under the FIG's auspices is due to take place on May 28 during the International Festival of Extreme Sports (FISE) in French city Montpellier.

Serving as a model for a proposed urban cluster at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and future Games, the 2017 FISE includes several other competitions, notably BMX freestyle, boulder climbing and roller skating.

Representatives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be present to observe the new trends in view of Tokyo 2020.