On track to unusual fundraiser

Ariki athlete Sarah Langsbury tries out the old Caledonian racing track at a construction yard in...
Ariki athlete Sarah Langsbury tries out the old Caledonian racing track at a construction yard in Dunedin yesterday. Photo: Gregor Richardson.
It is not a doormat — it is a portal to a world where you can outsprint Usain Boult.

Well, that is the rough sales pitch the Ariki Athletic and Harrier club has come up with to offload more than 1000sq m of old running track.

You have to give the club top marks for creativity. Two years ago, when the old track at the Caledonian was ripped up and replaced, it  saw value where others might have seen rubbish.

The plan is to chop it up into doormats, stencil on a lane number and then sell them off to the public.

"Basically people can walk in their door and they will have a piece of the Caledonian track beneath their feet," Ariki club captain Russell Lund said.

"But they are not just doormats. They are great for the bottom of utes and we’ve actually had interest from running clubs who say they could use them.

"There are a variety of uses. It is an outdoor all-weather surface, basically, and it is flexible. But the doormats are something we think there will be a wide market for."

There will need to be. Ariki has a lot of the stuff.  It has  36 2.4m wide rolls stored at Bayfield Park and at a construction yard in Dunedin.

"They are massive rolls and weigh over a tonne each. When they removed the track, they cut them up quite neatly into widths two lanes wide.

"But because it is an oval track, down the straight the rolls are really big and nice and symmetrical. But around the corners the rolls are a bit smaller."

Initially, there were plans to relay the old track at Bayfield Park. But that idea did not pan out and Ariki came up with its  unusual solution.

The funds will go towards the cost of operating and adding to the skills of coaches.

Promising Ariki athlete Sarah Langsbury was roped in to help with the mats yesterday. The 14-year-old has qualified for the All Australian Secondary School athletics tournament in November.

She is one of four Otago athletes who will compete at the event and she will contest the long jump, high jump and 90m and 200m hurdles.

The athletics season starts in mid-October. 

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