Penn Relays
The Penn Relays is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the USA, hosted annually since 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
More athletes run in the Penn Relays than at any other track and field meet in the world. It is a wonderful event and regularly features more than 15,000 participants from high schools, colleges, and track clubs throughout North America and abroad, notably Jamaica.
It attracts the biggest stars, including Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Allyson Felix and Usain Bolt.
Rekortan has been the chosen track for the Penn Relays since 1988.
Asian Games
With 86 World Athletics Certified Tracks in Asia and the Middle East, Rekortan is the clear leader in the region.
The 2018 Asian Games was held in Indonesia with the track & field competition held at the 77,000-seater Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium. Rekortan was chosen to provide the main track (Rerkortan M99) and the warm-up track.
Diamond League
Each year, the world’s greatest track athletes gather at The Diamond League, a series of athletics meetings that sits in the top-tier of the World Athletics competitions.
The Diamond League began in 2010 and since then Rekortan has been used at the most stadiums, including:
Bislett Stadium, Oslo, Norway
Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden
Gateshead International Stadium, UK
Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, UK
Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, Morocco
Qatar Sports Club, Doha, Qatar
Stadio Luigi Ridolfi, Florence, Italy
Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium (Shanghai)
In total (as of May 2024) our tracks have been used for the most (59) Diamond League meets.
It takes decades to master the design and build of these top-of-the-line tracks. They are big projects, and each market has its own complexities and challenges.
Olympic Games
Our tracks have been used at 7 Olympic Games and overall Sport Group has provided surfaces (track & field and field hockey) for 12 Olympic Games. Paris 2024 will be our 13th Olympic Games.
Sport Group, as the owner of the original synthetic track surfaces, Tartan and Rekortan, have a long history with the Olympic Games.
Rekortan tracks have been used at 4 Olympic Games - Munich, LA, Seoul and the Sydney warm up track. In addition, Sport Group’s heritage track brand ‘Tartan’, which is still available in Europe from Polytan, was used for Mexico City, Montreal and Moscow.
Over the years we have been involved in many memorable races, but here is a sequence that stands out…..In Los Angeles the great Carl Lewis won the 100m in 9.99 seconds, bronze went to Ben Johnson, who then ‘won’ in 1988, clocking in at 9.79. He was disqualified, so the gold went to Carl Lewis who was second in 9.92.
“Over the years we have been involved in many memorable races, but the LA / Seoul 100m sequence stands out.”
South East Asian Games
With the largest track installation network in Asia and the most certified tracks, Rekortan is regularly chosen for major events.
The South East Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games is a major biennial multi-sport event involving athletes from over 11 countries.
The 2019 Games, hosted in the Philippines featured almost 10,000 athletes. The track event was held at the New Clark City Sports Hub in a 20,000 capacity stadium that is designed to look like a volcano.
Both the stadium and warm up tracks were Rekortan M systems which is the most certified track in the world.
It was our responsibility to deliver a World Athletics Class 1 track, and we provided design services, project management and sign-off at key milestones to ensure compliance. The installation included the asphalt, track and line markings as well as installing all equipment.
2022 British Athletics Championships
Run on Rekortan, the 2022 British Athletics Championships was the national championships and qualifying event for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Manchester Regional Arena, the home of UK Athletics, is a multipurpose stadium in Manchester, England. It was originally built in 2001, using a Rekortan M system, as the warm-up track for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
In 2020 Polytan UK refurbished the track to create a new 8855m² track to World Athletics Class 1 standards to host high level competitions including Diamond League.
Rekortan M is one of the world’s highest performing and most reliable tracks. There are over 150 Rekortan M World Athletics Certified Tracks making it the most certified track in the world.
Despite the 2022 British Championships being held in cool conditions, there were some fast times with Jeremiah Azu winning the men's 100m in 9.90s and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake winning the men's 200m event in a championship record time of 20.05 seconds.