The newly laid Sugathadasa stadium track revealed an athlete’s worst fears when to the utter disgust of performers it could not sustain proceedings with several places giving way at the National trials yesterday.
Athletes who hit the starter’s call for the hundred metres had to depend on human support from the rear to fasten their feet against the blocks as a result of the degraded and worn-out surface.
It resulted in the most uncomfortable of starts for the athletes who came out with a litany of woes against meet organizers.
“I don’t know how they are going to conduct an international athletic championship at this venue in this condition. The long jump area and starting sections of spiriting events are damaged and that clearly affects the performance of athletes”, said one of the veteran technical officials.
With the blocks giving way due to the spoilt surface, athletes had no firm ground grip while assistants had to lie flat on the track from behind to enable the runners to hold onto whatever firmness there was.
Not a single athlete had the start he came for.
An entire runway stretch for the long and triple jump was also not suitable for use and needed urgent repairs.
The Sugathadasa track was redone at a cost of a whopping Rs 113 million on a tender granted to Gahakola Landscaping, a company which won the A grade certificate lately.
It was designed to host the Asian Junior athletics championship last year but the media pin-pointed minor damages after which the authorities assured that everything was under control and repaired.
However the Sugathadasa stadium authority has still not taken official custody of the track from Gahakola as work is still incomplete.
