Colbachini Stadium, holes in the track: all matches postponed

PADUA – It was inaugurated five and a half years ago with enthusiastic tones and great intentions: «Eight lanes and a new high-performance resin. It will be used every day.” Too much, evidently. Precisely due to excessive use, the track of the Colbachini stadium is now heavily damaged, so much so that it has been necessary to postpone the athletics competitions scheduled for the next few weeks. Holes have formed on the blue surface which risk penalizing the athletes, putting their safety at risk. There are around ten damaged parts of the track and the Municipality of Padua had to turn to the same company that had carried out the work in 2018. The Arcella facility is the flagship of Padua athletics, capable of attracting a large mass of national level athletes, but now maintenance work is needed.

THE MOTIVATION
Sports councilor Diego Bonavina explains what happened: «The facility was inaugurated in September 2018 but some things have changed compared to forecasts. The track was born with a preference for sporting performance rather than duration. It is good to remember that records have always been achieved in recent meetings and that Marcell Jacobs decided to focus heavily on the 100 meters after a “10.03” achieved at Colbachini. Unfortunately, however, a situation occurred that made the coat very heavy. At the Franceschini facility in Voltabarozzo we have had work underway for months and therefore almost all the athletes from Padua and many municipalities in the province come to Colbachini instead of being divided between Colbachini, Cus and Franceschini.”

Result: «The covering has worn out and broken in some places. A couple of months ago we took action by contacting the company: the track will be restored. We will resolve everything in a short time but in the meantime, in agreement with Fidal (the Athletics Federation, ed.) we have decided to move all the races that were initially scheduled for the months of April and May”.

THE TECHNICIAN
A couple of weeks ago it was Francesco Uguagliati, president of Cus Padova but also regional number one of Fidal, who raised the issue of the potholes on the Colbachini slope. «Some of our athletes who train there had told me about it with some concern. I went to the site and verified that the surface was damaged in several places and it was unthinkable to compete in those conditions.”
The athletics competitions of the Ludi del Bo’ were scheduled for May 1st, historic regional university championships organized by Cus. «Given the situation, I took some photos to send them to councilor Bonavina. We tried to verify whether the conditions existed to confirm the demonstration. The check gave a negative result: I wasn’t given the certainty that the track would be usable on May 1st, so I decided to postpone our athletics competitions to September.” A date shift that will not make many athletes happy, forced to compete in a period in which their fitness is usually not at its peak.

THE OTHER STRUCTURE
Meanwhile, the workers are also at work at the Franceschini plant. «The track will be completely redone – explains Bonavina -. The works were suspended in December because the casting, to take root well, must be spread at temperatures around 20-25 degrees. Now we have started moving again and I hope that the works will be completed between the end of May and the first half of June”.

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