Toowoomba athletes call for government to fund new tartan track at University of Southern Qld
Toowoomba's future Olympians will be forced to continue abandoning the Garden City without investment into critical infrastructure, as pressure mounts on the state government to fund one key piece.
Toowoomba 11-year-old sprinter Bailey Duggan has a dream of following in the footsteps of his hero Gout Gout in pursuing gold for Australia.
But without a significant investment from the state government, he won’t be able to do that from his hometown.
The Chronicle has joined forces with the city’s athletics community to campaign for an Olympic-standard tartan track for the region, which would allow promising young athletes to stay in Toowoomba rather than make the move to Brisbane.
Currently, sprinters have limited options in Toowoomba, with one of the few viable tracks covered in grass and featuring numerous hazards.
While the Garden City prepares to host equestrian events at the Brisbane Games in just seven years, the issue of poor local sporting infrastructure has once again reared its ugly head after Olympic medallist Matthew Denny raised it four years ago.
Toowoomba sprinter Jai Gordon, who at 22 is one of Australia’s fastest sprinters and ranked 13th in the country, said a tartan track was a key piece missing in the region’s sporting arsenal to keep young athletes here.
“It definitely inhibits athletes staying in Toowoomba — for a lot of these young ones now, if they keep going they’ll just go to Brisbane for the most part,” he said.
“It doesn’t keep your higher-up athletes within the local region.
“Every now and then we have to go down to Brisbane to do sessions if we need the tartan track specifically.”
Speaking in 2021, Denny said Olympic-standard infrastructure would also attract nations to train in Toowoomba in the lead up to 2032.
“Toowoomba needs an actual athletics track that’s accessible for everyone,” he said.
“We have Glennie but it’s getting quite old, so we need a public track similar to QSAC where we can bring international camps over, an area where people can actually train and compete.
“If you’re able to train on actual tartan, competitions can come to Toowoomba rather than us going out to other places.”
Gordon said sprinting had never been more popular in Australia thanks to the success of young athletes like Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy, making a potential investment in track infrastructure timely.
“By far, this is the best it’s ever been in history,” he said.
“Previously you could win national titles running 10.3s, 10.4s – now at a national, just to get out of the first round, you’re running 10.0s, 10.1s.”
It comes as The University of Southern Queensland once again expressed its openness to hosting a tartan track in Toowoomba.
“UniSQ is exploring opportunities with key stakeholders to enhance local sporting infrastructure, including on our Toowoomba campus,” a spokesman said.
“With growing interest in health, wellbeing and sport – particularly in the lead-up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games – we’re looking at how our facilities can better support our programs and open up new opportunities for the broader community.”
When asked about the need for a tartan track in Toowoomba, local MP and Queensland treasurer David Janetzki said he believed the Brisbane Games offered a chance to develop local sporting infrastructure.
“The 2032 Games offer an exciting opportunity for our city and state and I am supportive of infrastructure and projects that benefit our community and region,” he said in a statement.
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Originally published as Toowoomba athletes call for government to fund new tartan track at University of Southern Qld
