Students from a school in the Get Set network today witnessed the unveiling of the track in the Olympic Stadium today!
Top athletes and local school children first on completed Olympic Stadium track
3 Oct 2011
London 2012 celebrated another milestone on the Olympic Park today.
World record holder and Paralympic gold medallist Dan Greaves, British Long Jump record holder Chris Tomlinson and IAAF World Championships silver medallist Hannah England were the first athletes to take to the track.
They were joined by local school children from West Ham Church Primary School, a member of the Get Set network who will benefit from the Stadium’s legacy plans to be a venue for sport, athletics, community and cultural events.
Rimsha, a student from West Ham Church Primary school said “It was very exciting, being the first people to run on the Olympic track. I really enjoyed asking Lord Sebastian Coe questions”
The Mondo track, which was laid during August, will provide a fast surface for Olympic and Paralympic athletes during competition in 2012. The same surface has been laid for the 80m sprint straight under one of the main stands and a 400m training track near the stadium will be laid shortly.
Seb Coe, LOCOG Chairman, said: ‘Today marks a huge milestone for the project, as the Olympic Stadium starts to come to life and people get a glimpse of how it will look in less then ten months time when we welcome the world’s athletes to London. Although there is still a lot of work to do on the Stadium, seeing some of our top British athletes on the track with local school children really underlines the Stadium’s potential for 2012 and beyond.’
Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson said: ‘This is another piece in the jigsaw for our Olympic Stadium. I am sure that we will see some world records tumble on this track next year and some inspiring performances from the world’s best athletes. What a great legacy it would be for the Stadium too if the IAAF select London as the host city for the 2017 World Athletics Championships.’
