European Athletics’ Green Inspiration Partner Mondo saw its Mondotrack WS surface, installed just over a year ago, put through its paces during four days of Dynamic New Athletics (DNA) competition in Minsk last week as a prelude to the Dinamo National Olympic Stadium staging The Match Europe v USA September.
However, Mondo helped take DNA to the streets and the local athletics fans both young and old on 27 June, the day before the DNA final itself which saw Ukraine triumph, with a special promotion in the Belarus capital’s Victory Square.
Mondo technicians laid down 70-metre strips of track in just a few hours in the early morning and then removed it at night before shipping it elsewhere in Belarus to be used for street events there but in the meantime hundreds of people has the chance to try out athletics events albeit in slightly unseasonal damp conditions.
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The Mondo Street Event System, which is used across Europe, consists of rolls of track 10 metres in length loose-laid onto a solid surface, whether indoors or out.
The portable pre-fabricated track is glued onto a stabilising membrane and then a proprietary Mondo locking system is used to ensure that the surface remains secure and the rolls are joined seamlessly.
In addition to having an excellent competitive surface, having the same track as was used at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and will be used again at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games provides numerous promotional opportunities.
The children who tried out the track in Minsk were able to say that they had run on exactly the same track as had been used for the Olympic Games and, closer to home, was installed in Belarus’ premier athletics facility and only Class 1 IAAF Certified Athletics Facility.
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The Dinamo National Olympic Stadium saw its track laid last year in super-fast time, with Mondo technicians taking just a month to install 12,000m2 of Mondotrack WS and complete to line markings in the main stadium prior to its opening on 21 June 2018, one year to go to the Opening Ceremony of the second European Games, of which DNA was a part.
Ahead of the Dinamo National Olympic Stadium refurbishment, Belarus’ top athletes were consulted by their federation about what sort of surface they preferred and the answer came back that the type of track in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, which staged the 2015 IAAF World Championships, was the best option and that was a Mondo product.