The athletics track at the London 2012 Olympic stadium, designed by Italian company Mondo, has been completed. Made of synthetic rubber, the facility has been designed to help athletes run faster times.
World record holder and Paralympic gold medallist Dan Greaves, British Long Jump record holder Chris Tomlinson and IAAF World Championships silver medallist Hannah England were the first athletes to take to the track.
They were joined by local school children from West Ham Church Primary School in Newham who will benefit from the Stadium’s legacy plans to be a venue for sport, athletics, community and cultural events.
Five world records were set at the Beijing Olympics and 2012 organisers are hopeful that the similar surface will help athletes to at least match that total next summer.
The 80,000-capacity stadium - which will host the ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as all track and field events - is nearing completion with the latest cost estimate of the work standing at £486m.
Lord Coe, London 2012 chair, said: ‘Today marks a huge milestone for the project as the stadium comes to life’.
‘People can get a glimpse of how it will look in less than 10 months' time when we welcome the world's athletes to London’.
‘There is still a lot of work to do on the stadium but seeing some of our top British athletes on the track with local schoolchildren really underlines the stadium's potential for 2012 and beyond’.
Maurizio Stroppiana, general executive manager of Mondo added: ‘The first time we took part in an Olympic Games was Montreal in 1976. However, the emotion in seeing our beautiful track laid down in the stadium for another Olympic Games is stronger and stronger every time’.
Earlier on Monday, the IAAF commission visited the Stadium as part of the London bid to host the 2017 World Championships.
