FISE World Series held in Sichuan

A rider competes in the FISE World Series held in Chengdu, Sichuan province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Extreme sports lovers visiting Nanhu Park in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, from Friday to Sunday experienced a carnival of sorts as the FISE (Festival International of Extreme Sports) World Series was held there.

The FISE World Series is a worldwide extreme sports tour that gathers the best international athletes in BMX, skateboard, mountain bike, roller freestyle, wakeboard, scooter and parkour. Professional and amateur athletes come to battle in spectacular competitions in front of thousands of fans.

"As it has done from the outset, FISE continues to offer spectacular events in popular locations around the world," said Danny (Yuan Yuan) Zhang, media and marketing director of the FISE World Series.

The FISE World Series 2017 was held in Montpellier, France in May, Budapest, Hungary in August and Edmonton, Canada in September. Chengdu was the last stop of the FISE World Series 2017.

In 1981, Chengdu established ties with its sister city, Montpellier becoming the first Chinese city to be twinned with a European city.

A major city in Southwest China, Chengdu is accustomed to hosting national and international events, such as football and the triathlon.

All the action of FISE Chengdu in Nanhu Park was contained within 1 kilometer. This year, the last stop in Chengdu hosted competitions in five different sports: the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup, FIRS Roller Freestyle World Cup, mountain bike slopestyle (labeled a gold event by FMB), skateboarding and the new FIG Parkour World Cup.

The BMX Freestyle Park, Skateboarding Bowl and Street Style have recently been recognized as Olympic disciplines and will make their debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Athletes who are hoping to be part of it will start pushing the limits now to be at their highest level in three years. World class training facilities in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, and Chengdu will be key instruments for the Chinese national team, Zhang said.

The FISE World Series debuted in Montpellier in 1997. More than 1 million people attended FISE festivals in 2016, including 596,000 in Montpellier alone.

Chengdu hosted the event for the first time in 2014 and has been a host for four consecutive years ever since.