Donor steps in to fund new athletics track for University College Dublin
Pictured: Mark English, Olympian and UCD Ad Astra Elite Athlete
Posted January 25, 2018
A new €3 million track-and-field facility will be located at the heart of the Sports and Recreation Character Area of the 158-hectare UCD campus, alongside the existing sports centre, student centre (which includes a 50m Olympic size swimming pool and state-of-the-art gymnasium), the national hockey stadium and the UCD Bowl.
The cost of the track will be covered in full by a generous donor, including its maintenance for the next twenty years.
Former world champion (opens in a new window)@EamonnCoghlan1 and (opens in a new window)@alannaxo96 tell (opens in a new window)@EvanneNiC that a €3m anonymous donation to reopen a running track at UCD is very welcome (opens in a new window)pic.twitter.com/2OmTZqslBm
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) (opens in a new window)January 26, 2018
“With the support of a major philanthropic donation, the University is proud to announce that it is now able to move forward with the design, planning and development of a new athletics track on the Belfield campus,” said UCD President, Professor Andrew Deeks.
“The lack of an athletics track on the campus has put additional pressure on our athletes, some of whom have had to commute daily between campus and off-campus facilities for their training sessions.”
“We are grateful to these athletes and to the wider university community for their patience. The University always aspired to have a world-class athletics track as part of the university’s overall sporting facilities, but lacked the funding to deliver on this aspiration. We are extremely grateful to the anonymous philanthropist who stepped into the breach, and whose generous donation will now fully enable the track project and the maintenance of the track for the next twenty years, after which the university is committed to maintaining the track.”
“Our entire university community owes an enormous debt of gratitude to this donor, and to all donors to the University, for the remarkable generosity that is enabling us to transform the teaching, research and sporting facilities on campus for this generation and for generations to come.”
A key feature of a successful university campus is the availability of world-class sporting and recreation facilities. The provision of publicly accessible, attractive, and welcoming facilities helps to promote a balanced, healthy life for students, faculty, staff and the wider community.
By: Dominic Martella, UCD University Relations
