At last month’s (December) press conference in the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena Toruń to formally start the countdown to 2026 World Indoor Athletics Championships, Mondo athletics tracks were the centre of attention.
“Toruń is the most beautiful athletics facility in Poland,” commented Poland’s Minister of Sport and Tourism Jakub Rutnicki.
He was one of many dignitaries that day to pay tribute to Mondo which has supplied the athletics track in the Arena ever since it opened in August 2014.
“And in March, Toruń will be the centre of world athletics,” added Mr Rutnicki, speaking on the athletics track itself as he looked forward to the 21st edition of the most important indoor athletics event on the calendar, which will be held between 20-22 March.
Gracing the Arena will be a brand new Sportflex Super X K39 athletics track, with installation work starting in June 2025 and completed just a few months later.
Upgrading the Arena’s Mondo athletics track – which was also a Sportflex Super X K39 athletics track, with its durability and performance features for all standards of athletes being one of the main reasons why the Arena managers opted to replace like-for-like – has been one of the focal points of the modernisation of Poland’s premier indoor athletics facility which, when finished, will cost almost €5 million.
The six-lane 200m circular track, the eight-lane 60m straight in the middle of the Arena, the warm-up track and the jumps areas have all been replaced.
However, there was also a sense of sadness that it was time for the previous athletics track to be removed after 11 years.
In that time there has been almost 120 athletics meetings including the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships, 11 of the annual Copernicus Cup meetings which now has the status of a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, numerous national championships as well as thousands of hours when it was used for training.
More than 30 lorries transported the athletics track and various components by road.
Mondo engineers, working with their local partners Tamex, then installed the track itself onto the permanent banked structure that had been constructed in the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena Toruń in less than three months in time for its grand opening.
However, all good things must come to an end but, demonstrating Mondo’s commitment to environmental sustainability, the old track will be recycled on various ways, including back into the production chain.
In addition, to being Greenguard and Greenguard Gold certified, in 2024 Mondo’s Sportflex Super X K39 athletics track received a new environmental certification, OK Recycled.
At the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships an estimated 600 athletes from approximately 130 nations will then make their way to Toruń to compete on the Arena’s new Mondo athletics track.
And to demonstrate its high-performance properties and durability, just five days after the end of those championships, the European Masters Indoor Championships will take place at the same venue.