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A crumbling concrete velodrome once home to Australian cycling champion Anna Meares is set to play a crucial role in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
Key points:
- Anna Meares has joined Rockhampton's push for a world-class track
- The regional velodrome is set to attract international teams
- The track transformation will be the first of its kind in Australia
In a first of its kind in Australia, a cutting-edge transformation of Rockhampton's Kenrick Tucker Velodrome began this week.
Once complete, it is set to attract teams from all over the world.
Meares was one of the people who helped the regional Queensland club gain state funding to upgrade the track surface from bare concrete to a professional standard.
"Kenrick [Tucker] actually reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to write a letter in support of the grant application process and I was more than happy to," Meares said.
There are 3,206 days until the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games and the countdown is on for regional venues to host sporting events in the lead-up.
"It's a thing that I have done, we as the Australian Olympic team, heading into the Athens Olympic Games in 2004," Meares, who will be Australia's chef de mission for next year's Games in Paris, said.
She said the team had a training camp in Rockhampton and used a local gym and the velodrome.
"So with the Olympic Games leading through to Brisbane in 2032, it won't just be internationals, but also the Australian teams looking for venues outside the hustle bustle of Brisbane city," Meares said.
"I know Rockhampton in the past has been able to provide through its facilities training camps for rowing, for hockey, for cycling, and I'm certain, it will put its hand up again."
Home of cycling champions
The velodrome was opened in 1983 by cycling legend Sir Hubert Opperman and is a replica of the Edmonton velodrome on which Rockhampton's Kenrick Tucker won his Commonwealth Games track cycling gold medal in 1978.
The opportunity to train on a 31-degree banked velodrome gave track cycling a massive boost in Rockhampton, which has a long history of producing athletes such as Meares.
Rockhampton Cycling Club contracted All About Sports Courts, a south-east Queensland company, to perform the surface upgrade using "Mapei" — a velodrome coating system popular in Europe.
Club president Peter Buchanan said the 40-year-old track surface desperately needed work to preserve it.
"The Mapei coating is a product out of Italy and has been used all around the world but this is the first time it's been used in Australia on an elevated track like ours," he said.
The resurfacing is expected to take about six weeks to complete.
"I'm looking forward to hearing the feedback that the club gets from the cyclists once I'm gone," All About Sports Courts' Brad Baker said.
"And you know, the Olympic Games in Brisbane are down the track and it'd be good to get some Aussies winning some gold medals."
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