Indoor track event coming to LakePoint
Indoor track returns to Georgia this winter as the LakePoint Sports Champions Center at Emerson hosts a fourday meet February 8-11. LakePoint is partnering with the Dunamis Sports Group and the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation to resurrect indoor track in the Peach State.
“We’re trying to expand and grow indoor track and field,” said John Ross, a principal with the Dunamis Sports Group. An open professional and collegiate event will be held the first two days, followed by a high school and youth open event.
Ross designed the portable track, which cost $1.2 million and was used for the first time in February of this year at an event in Dallas, Texas.
“It’s a 200-meter track which features a 10-degree grade of banking, the maximum allowed by the International Association of Athletics Federations,” Ross said. “Even though it was designed specifically for sprinters we know that elite milers, elite distance runners will find it useful as well.”
Steve McBride, former track coach at the University of Texas-Corpus Christi, said the track features springy surface like a lot of new outdoor tracks including Barron Stadium.
McBride said straight-away sprints will be done in the infield portion of the track. All of the jumping events, pole vault, high jump and triple jump will also be staged in the infield.
The LakePoint Champions Center is a 175,000 square-foot indoor arena capable of hosting a multitude of events including as many as a dozen fullcourt basketball games at the same time.