By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association (ABAA), Everton Cornelius, has confirmed the arrival of a Mondo technician, Gabriele Alberto, on island and that the laying of the surface at the YASCO Sports Complex will commence this week.
Cornelius, in an interview with OBSERVER media, said prep work for the laying of the surface started Monday under the supervision of the Mondo rep.
“The work will begin on YASCO sometime this week, as a matter of a fact it has already started anyway because the preparation work has already begun for the laying of the track. Hopefully the actual putting down of the matting will probably start later in the week or early next week. From my discussions with them, it looks as if it is something that is going to take about three to four weeks,” he said.
Minister of Sports, Daryll Matthew, announced last week that a Mondo technician would have arrived on Sunday (March 14) and that laying of the surface was due to commence shortly after.
Cornelius said that based on information received, the track should be ready following a short curing process.
“The curing process would come when they are doing the marking of the track, and think anything after the finishing of the marking of the track when we will take about a week or so before we can actually jump on the track and start running. I haven’t had a chance to discuss those things in detail, because we are just going through the equipment we will need to do the actual work, so that’s what we spent this morning [Monday] doing,” he said.
Rehabilitation work started at the YASCO Sports Complex in 2018 and faced several delays over the past two years.