18.01.2008

IAAF gives Canberra big tick

A visit to Canberra by a senior IAAF official has brought some very welcome news for athletics in the nation’s capital.

Imre Matrahazi, in his first trip to Australia, spent this week working with former IAAF Technical Committee member and retired Australian official Denis Wilson in updating the Track and Field Facilities Manual.

But another motive for the visit was the opportunity to inspect the fresh AIS Athletics track and new Stromlo Forest Park cross country facility, the latter with Australian athletics great Rob de Castella.

And the Hungarian was impressed with what he saw.

“It’s really great that something is built especially for cross country because I think that in the world there are very few purpose-built cross country facilities,” Matrahazi said of Stromlo, which was devastated by fires in 2003. “They are using existing facilities for (these) purposes, especially hippodromes.

“It’s nice and I can imagine it will be much nicer in four or five years when the newly-planted trees will grow. The whole setting’s closeness to Canberra is very convenient and, as I heard, there are future plans for the building of an accommodation facility, a hotel, on the premises or nearby.

“It’s not yet finished but a lot of work has been done already and it’s good that they have a lot of things in the plans for the future.”

The AIS track was upgraded late last year and, given next week’s Canberra Athletics Classic is an IAAF Area Permit meet, Matrahazi was required to approve and certify the venue.

“We were there this morning at the AIS track and I’ve seen the new surface and the whole facility looks nice,” he said on Thursday. “It was full of athletes in a training camp, so it’s a living athletics facility. The whole area supports the facilities there.”

The host city of the IAAF World Cup in 1985, Matrahazi’s endorsements of Canberra suggest that is doing everything right to be considered for international athletics meets.

“The IAAF has 212 members and really, until now, many of them lack proper athletics facilities,” he said. “There are really black regions and spots on the map where we don’t have certified facilities or even proper athletics facilities.

“I think that Australia measures up to those who have now and they have all the expertise to do their best to develop these facilities to world standards.”

Wilson, who has also been working with local engineers and the Australian Defence Force Academy - the accredited IAAF lab - to develop a new hammer cage, has similar sentiment.

“Canberra has some world class facilities,” he said. “The Stromlo Forest Park development is a one of a kind and at a great attraction for Canberra.

“Athletics ACT is keen to work with the ACT Government to develop events at Stromlo Forest Park (and) having a key member of the IAAF with first hand knowledge will assist any possible future bids.”

The Canberra Athletics Classic will be held at the AIS Athletics Field on the weekend of January 26 and 27 and promises strong competition from many of Australia’s elite athletes. Action on Saturday, January 26 commences at 3pm.

March’s national selection trials for the 2008 World Cross Country Championships will be Athletics Australia’s first foray at Stromlo Forest Park.