The Federal Government’s bid to restore the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos to its old glory has received a major boost with the commencement of the installation of the tartan tracks last week.
A top official of Kyle Next, one of the contractors handling the rehabilitation of the edifice, confirmed the laying of the tracks has commenced and could be completed in four weeks with the newly installed facility in place.
Track technical specialist, Joseph Ayinla of Ideal Sports, a sports facilities installation and management company, revealed that the tracks would be laid in stages.
“The first stage that we commenced last week is the Elastic layer (E-layer) stage which will be followed with the Sealant stage to make the tracks impermeable to water and other fluids. The third stage will be the coating stage.
“After all these have been done, a certified World Athletics tracks marker will then do the markings. There will be a 9 lane running track and the strip for jumps, which is for long and triple jumps,” disclosed Ayinla, who was part of the team that laid the last tracks at the stadium in 1998, twenty four years ago and has been involved in the laying of such facilities in some other top class arena in Nigeria and beyond.