The New Long Jump Facility - To be Opened on December 1st by Jonathan Edwards

In the Beginning of May the go ahead was given for the club to construct a new long Jump runway and revamp the existing pit.On the 3rd of May a small band of volunteers began what they believed to be the simple task of constructing the new runway. It was soon realised that this was not going to be as simple as first thought, a great deal of planning was required before any work could begin. With the planning complete the physical work began with the digging out of the new runway.

An Excavator was organised to initially dig a runway to a depth of 10" with the volunteers completing the task. Then after levelling and ensuring the depth was correct along the 30 metres of runway all the materials were ordered (hardcore,sand and cement etc). Eventually and after many hours of backbreaking work the runway was ready to be concreted. This was completed and now it was ready for the new surface.

Contact was made with the company who are supplying the track for the Commonwealth Games Stadium in Manchester, and the track (Mondo) was duly ordered from Italy. The track arrived in 2 rolls each of which took 3 persons to lift. ALL that was now needed was a nice sunny day (as instructed by the manufacturers) to complete the track laying using the specialist glue provided. Getting a sunny day was easier said than done due to our typical British Summer. Then finally at 6.30pm on the 16th of July it was decided to go ahead and hope that the rain would hold off. The track laying was duly completed at 10.35pm in semi-darkness. The track was covered to allow the glue to harden (and hopefully stick). After 2 weeks the covers were taken off and lo and behold all was OK. We now have an excellent long jump facility which was ready for use on 23rd August.

Birtley Athletics Club would like to thank the following people :-