The Parkour World Championships have been postponed for a second time ©Getty Images

International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has confirmed the postponement of the inaugural Parkour World Championships in Hiroshima for a second time.

The World Championships had initially been scheduled to take place in April last year.

The FIG postponed the World Championships due to the coronavirus pandemic.

New dates of March 26 to 28 were announced for the rescheduled event, but the FIG has now been forced to postpone the competition again.

"In view of current travel restrictions and difficulties, the FIG considers the most appropriate option to be rescheduling the Parkour Worlds to a later period so as to enable the participation of athletes from all the countries which were expected to take part," the FIG said.

"The FIG will announce further details when they are officially confirmed."

Hiroshima was announced at the host of the inaugural World Championships in 2019.

The Japanese city has strong connections to parkour, having held the first official FIG competition there in April 2018.

The World Championships had initially been scheduled to take place in March last year ©Getty Images
The World Championships had initially been scheduled to take place in March last year ©Getty Images

The FIG officially voted to include parkour as a new gymnastics discipline at its Congress in December 2018.

The governing body has since held a series of Parkour World Cup events.

Parkour also featured at the inaugural World Urban Games in Budapest in 2019.

The FIG claims parkour is a "natural fit" for gymnastics and successfully proposed the sport for inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The governing body has been criticised by parkour groups, with several claiming the worldwide body has been guilty of "encroachment and misappropriation" of the discipline.