It’s been a monumental effort, but the fundraising for the refurbishment of the Hereford Athletics Track at Hereford Leisure Centre has now reached an incredible £100,000!
The fundraising effort has been hugely supported by Hereford City Council, whose donation of £70,000 has provided a huge morale boost to those behind this great effort.
A post on the Herefordshire Athletics Association website said:
“We are pleased to announce that Hereford City Council has agreed to pump prime the Hereford Track refurbishment with £70,000.
“This is one big step in our fundraising campaign, and we are delighted to have the support and backing of the City Council, who are also working with us to look into other funding available.
“We will be shortly be announcing another donation to our funding pot in due course.
“We are also working with Halo and Sport England, and meetings are in place to look at funding opportunities through them.
“We are beginning to arrange a calendar of activities to help us maintain momentum and raise funds.
“Please continue to donate by visiting: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/herefordathleticstrack “
On Monday 2nd January, over 150 runners from 15 running clubs in Herefordshire and beyond laced up their trainers and took part in a Dawn til Dusk run to support the county’s athletics track.
The event, that was organised by local running club the Hereford Couriers saw athletes from all age groups take part in the event which consisted of 5 8-mile loops around the city throughout the day, the event started at 8:19am just as the sun came up as runners continued to rack up the miles throughout the day until the sun set at 4:15pm which finished with a ‘don’t let the sun go down on the Hereford athletics track’ community lap for everyone to take part in.
On the day the event saw many runners run further than they had ever done in a day before with 6 runners; Kieran Merrick, Graeme Walker, Kim Saunders, Alex Knowles, Darren Gibbons and Ben Skinner taking on the full 5 laps and racking up an incredible 40 miles of running during the daylight hours.
The event was the kickstart of the Save Hereford’s Athletics Track Campaign which is being led by the Herefordshire Athletics Association, working with Halo Leisure as It is feared that without major investment, the only track and field facility in the county of Herefordshire will not obtain a permit to host events and meetings in future years.
The athletics track and field facility at Hereford Leisure Centre was first laid in 1988, is now in need of major investment with recent surveys estimating something in the region of £350,000 will be needed to resurface the track along with investing in the jumps and throws areas to bring the much-loved facility up to the required standard.
