Artificial Surfaces


“


At around £500,000, this is a massive investment in the site and allows the stadium to hold enhanced events such as heptathlons and decathlons, as well as club and county competitions


them to local clubs, who are then responsible for running them.” As a centre of excellence for athletics,


Wavertree Stadium is expected to stage major track and field club and county events. The new surface is seen as a faster one than its predecessor and hopes are high that competition on it will challenge national and international records. Part of a multi-million refurbishment, the


newly completed track surrounds augmented field facilities also constructed by CLS Sports. Extended high jump and pole vault areas allow competitions to be staged concurrently. The expanded shot put zone includes both


Redgra and traditional surfaces, whilst field capability has been further enhanced with a hammer cage and triple jump running between two long jump strips to also allow side-by-side competition.


Arwel Williams is the longstanding


Honorary Secretary of the club and has witnessed a generation of athletes train and compete at Liverpool Harriers. A national athletics official, Arwel, 58, was a member of the organising team for the IAAF World Championships in London (out of stadium), held this August at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, as well as the 2017 Paralympic Athletics World Championships staged in July, where he was chief judge of the field events. He knows, perhaps more than anyone, the


importance the upgrading means to what is an historic sporting focus. “We are a top-end track and field athletics club,” he stresses, ”the only one offering this scale of facilities in Liverpool and are centrally based for the city.”


With membership standing at more than


600 - “a good number for the size of the city” - Liverpool Harriers are poised for boom times in the wake of the refurbishment. The city boasts no fewer than three


universities, so athletically-minded undergraduates would want to spend time at a quality facility, he adds. “We tend to see students who are just starting out at university - in September and October. “They start off keen as mustard, then their


enthusiasm dies off later in the academic year.” That sounds like a warning note, but he adds quickly. “If they stay in the city, they join us.”


The old track had been due for renewal for


some years, Arwel notes. Although the clubhouse is ours, the sporting provision and 600-seat stand is council-owned. “Parties have ongoing discussions relative


to an asset transfer option and it was the dilapidation survey that revealed the extent of the refurbishment needed before that option was truly on the table,” he says. Chris Jones, chief executive of England


Athletics, viewed the project recently to check on the sports governing body’s new


108 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017


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