PHOTO Leave without a track » Constanta athletes no longer have any stadium in the city where they can train, and nothing like that was planned for the new arena!

The demolition of the old arena in Strada Primaverii in Constanța did not only affect football. The disappearance of the stadium also meant the destruction of the only athletics track in the seaside town.

As a result, for almost three years, the athletes from Constanta have been training wherever they can, in parks, on the beach or in other towns tens of kilometers away.

Theoretically, the new project of the sports complex also includes a sports arena dedicated to athletics, but it is not known if and when it will be built.

They held an athletics “memorial” service last summer

Dissatisfied with the created situation, former athletes and coaches raised an unprecedented alarm signal last summer. They organized an ad-hoc commemoration of Constanta athletics right in front of the former stadium.

An irony to the local authorities, considered the main culprits because the new arena in Constanța will be dedicated to football and will not be equipped with an athletics track.

Among those present was Andrei Szemerjai, the former director of the “Nicolae Rotaru” High School with Sports Program. Appointed in the meantime to a leadership position at the municipality's club, CSM Constanța, he nuanced his position towards the city's leaders. And he did not take any further steps to find a solution in favor of the athletes.

Photo: Ionuț Coman (GSP)

Roads through the county

If the little athletes trained in the parks or on the beach, the performance ones had to look for options far from the city. They chose to go to Cumpăna or 23 August, much smaller towns, but where local authorities have built sports bases with athletics tracks in recent years.

Even so, they brought medals for Constanța, the brightest belonging to Alexia Dospin, who won the European youth title in the triple jump event this summer, in Norway.

The lack of conditions has also hit grassroots sports hard, with coaches finding it increasingly difficult to attract youngsters to athletics.

“Not having a properly arranged base, lately we have been training in parks, on cement, on sand. It is very important to have a stadium with a tartan trackbecause that's how we can attract as many children as possible to movement and performance”, said the triple jumper with two appearances at the Olympic Games, Cristina Bujin, currently a coach at the School Sports Club No. 1 in Constanța.

Help from NGOs

If the local authorities sat idly by, the solution seems to have come from the Constanta civil society. Two NGOs, Asociația Caravana Fericirii and Constanța Restart, collected over 200,000 euros following the Brazilian Christmas Gala charity event.

The entire amount will be used for the restoration of the football field and the athletic track in the premises of the Children's Palace in Constanța. The small stadium has recently been left in disrepair by the institution subordinate to the Ministry of Education and Research, due to the reduced budget.

The works will start at the beginning of next year and will last around 6 months, and the facilities will be made available to all the residents of Constanta.

Photo: Ionuț Coman (GSP)

Hall in disrepair

In addition to the lack of an athletics track, athletes from the city by the sea also face the impossibility of using the athletics hall in the “Badea Cârțan” sports complex. The building is in an advanced state of disrepair and has been used as a storage space for several years.

Passed in 2023 from LPS “Nicolae Rotaru” to the administration of CSM Constanța, the hall should have been rehabilitated, but everything got stuck in bureaucratic procedures.

Two months ago, the management of the Constanta club announced that it had obtained the construction permit, but it does not have the necessary money and hopes to obtain more than 18 million lei from European funds to start the works, the deadline being a maximum of two years.