Phil Sports
Article by Andrew Pirie
ATFS Statistician
PRIORITY FOR TRACK USE AT PHIL SPORTS
- National Athletes Track and Field
- National Athletes
- Collegiate Athletes Track and Field
- General Public (Joggers, varsity other sports, walkers etc..)
Common sense needs to be applied and national coaches will need to instruct and direct the
use of oval emphasizing track etiquette.
Ultra Pasig Joggers
While on Saturday night I had a very near run-in with a jogger. While I was doing 150s at
Philippines Sports Complex (Ultra) at 16s/11s 100m pace. Hence I and my training partner
were using lane 1 and 2 and our friends cleared lane 1 and 2 telling the joggers we were
using these lanes (fast lanes) for sprints. Everyone hopped out of the lane. When we rounded
the curve and came halfway down the strait I notice one jogger who had earlier been told to
clear the track by my friend had made his way back to lane 1 and 2 despite being told earlier
to clear the lanes.
My friend had to ease down in the rep as the jogger was halfway between our lanes, I yelled
track and lane 1 3 times and my friend waved to him as he was wearing headphones. He
acted like he didn’t hear me when he was wearing his headphones. In fact, to my horror, he
moved from the outside to right in my lane. I had to slam the breaks down at top speed and
was very lucky I didn’t rip my hamstring. Even though he claimed he didn’t hear me “I
didn’t know, I didn’t know” he clearly could hear me when I started screaming and cursing
bad language at him because I’m lucky I didn’t get injured.
After this, I filed an incident report to security.
The management at the track had not placed the fast lanes 1-4 and joggers stay in
lane 5-8 lanes sign for some time. This has put the safety of the athletes highly at
risk and Saturdays incident was a pure of example of what could happen as a result
if instructions are not being followed.
Also, the board with the rules on it at Ultra tells the joggers “stay in your designated lanes”.
How are they supposed to know which lanes these are when management does not specify
this?
I definitely expect the sign to be up their today when I head ultra, I will be really annoyed if
it isn’t.
I have nothing against joggers using the oval they have as much a right to work out as
everyone else. However, safety must come first. Furthermore, this is not only for the safety
of the fast runners but also for the safety of the joggers. Joggers too are trying to stay fit but
everybody safety should not be compromised because of this.
So when the signage goes back up there is no excuse to not follow the rules. So I had a think
about why the joggers are assigned the outside lanes before and the reason is this. Then If the
fast runners are assigned outside lanes that means the joggers will have to walk past sprinters
to get to their respective lanes. Because it’s much safer for faster runners to pass by joggers to
get to the inside lanes.
Related articles
POC chief wants to put premium on build-up for 2017 SEA GamesNew Rubber Surface at Ultra nears completion (update)
Mar 25, 2014
Updates the Track Oval at Ultra is nearly complete and should be ready in time for the
Philippine National Games May 17 to 22. Furthermore provided are some more recent photos
from our track friends. While despite the delays caused by weather, Yolanda etc which forced
work to stop as rain would cause damage if the track was worked on at the time the Track at
Ultra is nearing completion.
The laying of the brand new rubber surface at Ultra has started. The rubber is not mondo but
its a better grade than the rubber used at other ovals in the Philippines. The project is
estimated to be completed in around 30-40 days. Last year the PNG 2013 was held at Ultra
and the oval was so worn out and melting that it was not uncommon for shoes to become
damaged and to sink into the track rather than bounce off.
The PSC decided it was high time to give Ultra a well-needed makeover and then went about
renovating the oval which closed to the public near the middle of last year. The difficult task
of scraping the old excess rubber from the concrete to prevent rapid deterioration of the new
surface. It looks like a good surface in what is going to be a wonderful year for Athletics at
the 2014 PNG.
Photos below care of Commissioner Jolly Gomez.
