Colchester Garrison Athletics Stadium, UK

The city of Colchester in Essex, England, has a long, eventful history. It is the oldest documented settlement in Great Britain and was the first administrative capital of the Romans after they conquered Britain some 2,000 years ago. Today, Colchester has around 100,000 inhabitants and functions as a satellite city of London, around 100 kilometres away.

In the nearby village of Tendring, the city has found a kindred spirit for local communal activities. Today, the village is home to both the Tendring-Colchester Borders Garden Community and the Colchester and Tendring Athletics Club. The latter defines itself as a family-friendly, inclusive club that wants to offer sports enthusiasts in the nearby and wider area the best possible opportunities at every performance level. For example, the club provides younger athletes with playful training programmes featuring elements of all the athletics disciplines to inspire a love of sports at a young age. Increasingly specialised training programmes are then offered to the athletes as they grow up. And successfully so: members of the Colchester and Tendring Athletics Club compete in the Eastern Young Athletes League, the East Anglian T&F League, the Southern Athletics League and the Eastern Masters Athletics Club.

The home of the club is the Colchester Garrison Athletics Stadium, in the middle of the Abbey Field Park, aka the “Garrison Track”. The grass pitch, which is surrounded by an athletics track, is used for various sports, such as football, cricket and rugby. The running circuit was renewed in 2020 using our Rekortan BS synthetic surface in brick red, Polytan’s all-rounder for competitive tracks and training facilities in athletics. The structural spray-coated surface is primarily used for running tracks and run-up tracks. In Colchester, its eight lanes run right past the clubhouse, a typical English cottage-style building. Rekortan BS has a thick, water-permeable surface and is quick, easy and cost-effective to install.

To ensure optimal training conditions for the athletes at the Garrison Track, the running track is also equipped with our Polytan SMART system, which provides professionals and amateurs alike detailed recordings of their training sessions. Polytan SMART not only enables precise time measurements and performance diagnostics for classic running sports, it can also measure an athlete’s approach in the long jump or when pole vaulting. The results help athletes to direct their training more effectively and ultimately improve their performances.

There’s also a great deal taking place off the field of play at the club, which holds regular events for its members to give them the opportunity to spend time together in a more relaxed setting. Together they celebrate the successes of their athletes in and around Colchester, with our Rekortan BS providing the perfect foundation.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say, therefore, that our products are helping to bring the motto of the Colchester and Tendring Athletics Club to life: Striving for success and enjoyment through athletics.