By Neto Baptiste
Retired national track athlete Lester Flax, believes that for the country’s athletes to get maximum use from a redeveloped YASCO Sports Complex, the property must be critically managed, including how and when some lanes are used.
“To me, one of the best ways to preserve that track is to put cones in the first four lanes because people naturally gravitate towards the inside lanes which usually causes the lanes to erode and I’ve seen this at tracks all over the United States at universities. They tend to now, protect the inner lanes so I would suggest that you put cones in the first four lanes,” he said.
Flax, who contested the 400 meters event at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada, urged the local athletics association to invest in signage and other methods off alerting those utilising the facility of its rules.
“Put signs up asking the people to run in the outer lanes if they are going to use the track and that is probably the best prevention from the wear and tear and that’s the most kind of damage you will get. Of course, you will get your weather related damage over time,” he said.
Work at the YASCO Sports Complex stopped in late March after technicians from the Mondo track building company were forced to leave the country ahead of port closures amidst the fight against coronavirus.