Hayward Field ready for athletics showpiece

Article posted by Coliseum, January 15^th, 2021

Image: University of Oregon

Work on metamorphosing the University of Oregon’s (UO’s) (US) Hayward Field into an elite track and field facility has been completed, making it ready to act as the fulcrum of the postponed World Athletics Championships.

In April 2020, the World Athletics announced that its World Championships in Eugene, Oregon will now take place from July 15^th-24^th, 2022, a year later than originally scheduled. The postponement was confirmed after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo has been pushed back until 2021 due to the COVID-19 curse which is still causing huge devastation the world over. Eugene’s Championships had originally been scheduled for August 6^th-15^th, 2021.

The University of Oregon is a public flagship research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Hayward Field is a historic track and field stadium in Northwest United States, located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.

The World Athletics Championships are a biennial athletics competition organized by the World Athletics – the international governing body for the sport of athletics, covering track and field, cross-country running, road running, racewalking, mountain running, and ultra running.

The University has retaken possession of the arena which has undergone more than $200m (£161.1m/€178.4m) revamp work funded entirely by private donations, led by UO alumnus Phil Knight, co-founder of US sportswear company Nike, and his wife Penny, as well as gifts from more than 50 donors.

Rehabilitation work began in June 2018 and the University of Oregon hopes the new-look Hayward Field will set a new standard for sports stadia, creating world-class training and competition facilities for student-athletes.

The stadium, which had seated 8,500 fans, has been expanded to hold 12,650 permanent seats. The North end of the stadium will be used as the location for the majority of the temporary seating needed to bring the capacity up to the minimum 30,000 required for the World Championships.

Hayward Field originally opened as an American football stadium in 1919, but has been used as a track and field venue since 1921.

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