No worries for practice tracks: officials
Published Friday August 15th, 2008
Final decisions due in fall for 2010 track & field locations
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BY ALAN COCHRANE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFFs
Final decisions on the locations and funding for training and warmup facilities for the 2010 World Junior Track and Field Championships likely won't be made until this fall when a delegation from the sanctioning body makes an inspection trip to Moncton, but that shouldn't pose any problems in staging the event, city spokesman Ian Fowler said yesterday.
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Greg Agnew/Times & Transcript
"This issue is not throwing the event off track," Fowler said. He said final decisions won't be made until officials from the International Association of Athletics Federation make an inspection visit to Moncton in October and officially approve Moncton's plans for facilities.
More than 2,000 athletes from more than 100 countries are expected to be in Moncton for the international competition in 2010, which will make it one of the biggest events the city has ever hosted.
Construction has already begun on the new stadium where competitions will be held, but there is still a question of where the practice, training and warmup facilities will be. Fowler said yesterday that two practice facilities will likely be required, at a combined cost of about $6 million depending on how and where they are constructed. The source of funding for the facilities is still in question but Fowler said he is confident it will be forthcoming as soon as plans are finalized.
Speaking following a meeting of the Conservative Party of Canada's Atlantic caucus in Fredericton yesterday, the minister responsible for ACOA, Peter MacKay, said funding for the practice facilities has not been ruled out.
"I am not in a position to say what that amount will be, and what the final negotiations will result in," said McKay.
"I understand that there is still a lot of discussions about the other facilities. As you know we have put money into the main stadium, and I know there have been applications put forward."
Choosing a location and securing the funding will be among the many jobs of the event's organizing committee. A news conference is expected next week to introduce members of the executive committee and their plan to bring the event to fruition.
Fowler explained that under the terms of its agreement with the IAAF, the host city needs to provide the main stadium, a practice track and a warmup facility. The IAAF is also the sanctioning body for the Olympics. It is represented in Canada by Athletics Canada. The Ottawa office said senior officials with Athletics Canada are in Beijing for the Olympics. Attempts to reach them for comment on the Moncton situation have so far been unsuccessful.
Construction of the new 20,000-seat, $20-million stadium began in April on the campus of l'Université de Moncton. It is being funded through contributions by all three levels of government, including $7.5 million from Ottawa and $6.5 million from Fredericton.
Fowler said pouring of the surface at the main stadium will be done this fall, and it is hoped the surface for other facilities will be done at the same time. Moncton will also be the host of the 2009 and 2010 editions of the Canadian national junior track and field championships. The 2009 event is now less than a year away since it is scheduled for Aug. 6-9.
But plans for the practice and training facilities are still up in the air. Fowler said the host needs to provide a practice track and a warmup facility. The training or practice facility would include a six-lane running track and amenities for athletes to work on their high jump, pole vault and other skills prior to their competitions. It would basically be a full-scale replica of the stadium where competitions are held. The warmup facility would be smaller and give athletes a place to warmup just prior to their events.
Fowler said he had a first-hand look at the facilities in Beijing two years ago.
"The warmup facility and the training facility were in the same place, which was not ideal."
Under an agreement with Moncton, the Town of Sackville wanted to set up a practice facility in the town. This made sense because many of the athletes would be staying at dorms on the campus of Mount Allison University, a 45-minute drive away from the main competition stadium in Moncton. The town had applied for funding from the federal and provincial governments to help build the facility. But this week, with no sign of the money, Sackville's town council decided to give up on the idea. The Regional Development Corporation, a branch of the provincial government, said this week that Sackville's application is still under review. Patricia Field, a spokeswoman for the The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency said yesterday ACOA would not comment on the status of an application that has not been finalized.
With Sackville apparently out of the game, Fowler said the city still has options for the training facility. Five potential locations are Mount Allison University, behind the Memramcook arena, at the Anna Malenfant School in Dieppe, l'Odysée School in Moncton and the Moncton High School track on Church Street.
Both school districts in Metro Moncton have held out hope that the Moncton schools would be chosen because a track facility would be a valuable asset for future athletes.
Moncton MP Brian Murphy agrees.
"The practice track should be in Moncton," Murphy said yesterday.
"Moncton High, my alumnus, would be a great choice, but so would be a track near the new middle school (l'Odyssée). Unfortunately that school was built without athletic facilities because of a short-change operation from the last provincial government."
If it comes to push and shove, Murphy said he would lobby for a Moncton location.
"The people paying for this are the people of Greater Moncton and that track should be in the Greater Moncton area. It would be an affront if the practice track, which would be used by day-to-day competitors from the local area for a long time, was not put in Moncton."
Fowler said the organizing committee will look at all the sites to decide which would be the best one, and provide options for the IAAF representatives when they visit Moncton in October.
The idea is to have practice and warmup facilities that are convenient for the athletes and minimize the need for bus transportation between them and the main competition stadium. But it made sense to have the training facility as close as possible to the dorms at Mount Allison, where many of them will be staying.
Once the location and other details have been worked out, Fowler expects funding will come quickly. He said city officials have already been in talks with the provincial government and explained what will be needed, including cost estimates.
"The files are still active and waiting for additional information and input."
He said the facilities, if built separately, would cost about $3 million each. But that cost could vary depending on the location and many other factors. In the case of Moncton High, Mount Allison and Memramcook, they are all aging facilities that would need a lot of work to bring up to standards. But once they were complete, they would be valuable assets for their communities and the nearby schools.
Moncton was given the nod by the IAAF to host the 2010 World Junior Track & Field Championships in March of 2006. The city was competing with Bydgoszcz (pronounced Bid-gosh), Poland, which hosted the 2008 event last month. That event attracted 1,520 athletes from 166 countries and had an average attendance of 9,000 people per day. From 1986 to 2006, the event has been held in Greece, Canada (Sudbury), Bulgaria, South Korea, Portugal, Australia, France, Chile, Jamaica, Italy and China.
n With files from Jesse Robichaud
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