Younis Reshi from South Kashmir has become a new sensation in the field of Parkour and Freerunning.
Parkour is the sport of traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing, or leaping rapidly and efficiently.
30-year-old Reshi, hails from Chontipora Verinag, just a stone’s throw from the famous Mughal Garden Verinag. He is capturing everyone’s attention with his Parkour and Freerunning, which are still unfamiliar sports to many.
His journey began when he was in his early teenage years at the local school, where he participated in a running competition and won first place. This sparked a lifelong passion for athletics in him. Since then, he has won many awards at local, state, and national levels.
Reshi said, “I started as a professional athlete in 8th grade. In 2018, I completed a Sola Ultra-marathon of 135 kilometers under the watch of the local civil society in 11 hours and 6 minutes.”
Initially, his family was hesitant to support him, but his achievements, including numerous gold, silver, and bronze awards, eventually changed their perception. Now, they are supportive of his endeavors.
He said, “I was not aware of what I was doing or what it was called initially. Later, I discovered DomTomato, a parkour athlete, and tried to perform his actions. But doing these stunts isn’t easy; it takes time, patience, and practice.”
For the past three years, he has been uploading Parkour and Freerunning videos on social media, aiming to capture people’s attention. His main motive is to divert the attention of youth from drugs to sports.
Reshi said, “The problem with Verinag is that we don’t have any indoor stadiums. I perform all my activities on hard ground and have been injured numerous times.”
A good number of boys have contacted him for training, but the lack of ground and safety equipment prevents him from training anyone.
Reshi recently posted a video on Facebook titled “Strength and Fitness”, which garnered 6.4 million views.
Reshi is currently coaching many youth aspiring to participate in recruitment, including for the police’s physical test. He said that he recently trained several boys from across Kashmir, and they all qualified in the recruitment.
