Extreme sports fever struck Manipur with people, mostly youngsters, flocking to watch the daredevilry of skateboarders and BMX riders enthralling them here.

The X-Jam Metropolis North East Tour, which began on June 21 and ended today, has been a big hit among the people in Imphal and surrounding areas, with the participants producing stunning feats though seasonal rains were a bit of dampener.

The event was jointly organised by Imphal-based X-Jam, an Extreme Sports promoting organisation, with Guwahati-based art exhibitors, ‘Metropolis.’ A similar event was also held in February at Karbi Anglong, Assam, and will be held in Shillong in July.

The event features BMX bike competition, BMX bike stunt demo by professionals, b-boying (a style of street dance) competition and skateboarding.

“After Shillong, we are planning to proceed to Gangtok and Sikkim and then to New Delhi and Mumbai,” X-Jam Chief Co-ordinator, Mr Irom Umananda, told PTI.

“It’s a big hit here with youngsters enjoying every bit of the daredevilry acts by the participants. Everyday, 4,000 to 5,000 people witnessed the events. This kind of Extreme Sports tour happened for the first time in India,” he said.

The idea of Extreme Sports has been a recent phenomenon in Manipur and Mr Umananda said his five-year-old organisation is the pioneer and it has the recognition of Asian Extreme Sports Federation.

“My organisation has held these extreme sports events ever year since 2009 when we collaborated with the State Tourism Department. In 2010, we were part of Sangai Festival.

In April this year, we were part of Karbi Anglong Youth Festival,” Mr Umananda said.

The event has sponsors in TI Cycles, Rishta Trading and Company and Idea Cellular.

Skateboarding competition was held on the first day on June 21 with around 25 participants showing their skills at the Singjamei Basketball Ground.

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