3rd National Parkour & Movement Competition, May 2023
Over 5–7 May 2023, Vanarshala hosted the 3rd National Parkour & Movement Competition at the Shala, their training park in Gurugram. It was the first of two editions they ran that year, six months before the 4th competition in November. It was announced ten days beforehand as a three-day weekend of competition and community jams, with a cash prize pool split across the categories.
Guests could stay at the Shala for the weekend, and freshly cooked meals were available on site at nominal cost across all three days. The organisers were explicit that the weekend was for everyone present, competing or not.
Categories
The competition ran five categories, named in Vanarshala’s own vocabulary of “Vanargiri”, the Indian movement tradition the organisation is built around:
- Vanargiri (Style): new at this edition, judged on creativity, execution, flow, difficulty, and originality.
- Vanargiri for Women and Vanargiri for Men: speed, run against the clock to complete the course fastest.
- The Ultimate Vanar: skills, a test of range and technical mastery across a series of designed challenges, held separately for women and men.
- Vanarsena: the team category.
Programme
The style category ran across all three stages of the weekend, beginning on the Friday evening:
- Friday 5 May. Stay allocation for guests from 4:00 PM, an open jam from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, then Vanargiri (Style) heats from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, and dinner at eight.
- Saturday 6 May. The bulk of the competition: Style semi-finalists’ preparation from 7:15 AM and Style qualifiers at 8:00; Vanargiri for Women (Speed) at 9:15; Vanargiri for Men (Speed) at 10:00; The Ultimate Vanar (Skills), women from 11:30. After lunch and a rest break, finalists’ preparation from 3:00 PM, Vanargiri (Style) men’s finals from 4:00 to 5:00, Vanarsena (Team) from 5:00 to 6:00, and The Ultimate Vanar (Skills), men from 6:00 to 7:00. Prize distribution followed at 7:00 PM, dinner at eight.
- Sunday 7 May. No competition. Open jams from 8:00 to 10:00 AM and again from 3:00 to 6:00 PM, an hour of Vanar Talks at ten, and a farewell at six.
Results
The results for this edition are not on record. Vanarshala published a full winners list for the November competition six months later, but no equivalent post for this one has been found on their page, and we have not traced the placings elsewhere.
The programme survives in full; the results do not. If you competed, judged, or organised at this event, or you have the placings, write to us.
A note on the categories
Two things are worth flagging in how Vanarshala name and run these. Vanarshala use the name “Vanargiri” for both the speed and the style categories, distinguishing them only by a parenthetical: “Vanargiri for Men” is a speed event while “Vanargiri (Style)” is not. And the schedule lists a men’s final for the style category but no women’s equivalent, which we have recorded as it stands rather than assuming an omission.