Tartan track experts call on Minister

Two officials of Polytan, a German tartan tracks company and their local representatives, Shelter Innovations, on Wednesday, held a high level talks with Edward Osei-Kwaku, Youth and Sports Minister and briefed him on their technical findings of the country's running tracks.

The group arrived in the country last Saturday and have since inspected the two main stadiums - Accra and Kumasi Sports Stadiums and the Winneba Sports College- to access the state of the tracks.

They are scheduled to present an official technical report to the minister later on Wednesday and how they could assist the ministry to source for funding.

A source close to the team told the GNA Sports that the synthetic tracks could only be laid after civil works have been completed. TAYSEC and other civil engineering companies are being contacted to tackle the civil works to prepare the grounds for the relaying of the tracks, which could take six to eight weeks.

The source said it would cost the nation at least million dollars for the tracks to be re-laid in each of the stadiums excluding the civil works.

He said the company would present the total cost to the ministry when it has factored in the cost of the civil works. The current tracks at the Accra and Kumasi Stadiums are six millimetres high, which fall short of the International Athletics Federation's standards of 13 millimetres.

This, the source said, is partly due to the regressing of the turfs which has raised the pitch higher than that of the tracks adding, "this and other things need to be corrected by the civil engineers before work could start".

Mr. Osei-Kwaku later told the GNA Sports that the team during the discussions proposed to build a gym and a medical centre within the stadium and probably a training tracks outside the stadium.

He said this could only be considered based on the availability of funds. The tartan tracks at the Accra and Kumasi Sports stadiums were last renovated in 1978 when Ghana hosted the African Nations Cup.