The newly upgraded Coetzenburg athletics track literally positions Maties Sport at Stellenbosch University (SU) in a new light.
After a multi-million rand upgrade of the stadium facilities, including an A-grade new track and state-of-the-art lighting, Coetzenburg is firmly placed as an international athletics venue, with versatility for football.
The Coetzenburg athletics stadium began as a simple athletics track and pavilion in 1932 and was first upgraded in the 1940s. At that time, the student newspaper Die Matie reported that Stellenbosch had one of the “best athletics tracks in the country". The first synthetic track was laid in 1974.
The provision of appropriate facilities is vital for the development of sport – especially high-performance sport – at universities. Overseeing the maintenance and upgrading of facilities, ensuring that Maties Sport offers world-class facilities to student athletes as well as the community at large, and in this way contributing to Maties Sport's vision of making Coetzenburg a destination of choice for local and international athletes is the responsibility of Mr Jerry Laka, Maties Sport Director: Support Services.
“The discussions and planning for these upgrades started in 2015 and included the development of a seven-year facilities upgrade programme supported by the University's senior management. All stakeholders were consulted during the planning phase to ensure we could align this plan with the University's master plan and Stellenbosch Municipality's development plans. To build world-class facilities, we needed to look at international benchmarks. I'm very happy that we could complete these improvements in SU's centenary year (2018)," said Laka.
This world-class facility was made possible thanks to ongoing and collaborative interventions, planning and execution between Maties Sport and Facilities Management.
The upgrades provide athletes with five long jump pits, two javelin run-ups, three pole vault areas, two high jump areas and a full athletics track. Indoor upgrades include a stadium club house, a conference room, ladies' and men's locker rooms, admin offices, fresh facilities for physiotherapists, referees and players, entrance turnstiles, a press box and a time-keeping box.
Coetzenburg is a popular off-season training venue for international athletes and over the years the track has seen Olympic and Paralympic medallists and world champions train and compete at the stadium. More than 200 international athletes from countries such as Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands made use of the facilities at Coetzenburg in December and January, while eight athletics events were scheduled to take place at the venue in January and February. The Varsity Athletics meet and the National Disability Games will be hosted there in March.
While the track is breath-taking in its Winelands setting, it is the lighting that will take Coetzenburg to new international status. Global sports stadium lighting specialists Maritz Electrical was commissioned to install the Musco LED lighting system that compares to Twickenham rugby stadium, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and St George's Park Cricket Ground.
According to Warren Williams, head of Technical at Maritz Electrical, this is the first LED system installed at an athletics stadium in South Africa. Installation of the masts took precise planning to ensure that all areas of the track and field are sufficiently lit to the required lux levels for athletes and broadcasters for high definition broadcasting – and to enhance spectator experience.
