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The Belfield track was used by clubs from UCD and beyond, and is the site of a world record that still stands today. Screen grab from jonasdawhale via YouTube
Belfield

WATCH: UCD students tog out to save the Belfield running track

UCD Athletics Club says college authorities gave them 21 hours’ notice that their track was being closed. Here’s how they responded.

SPORTS CLUBS IN UCD say they were given just 21 hours’ notice of the famed athletics track on the campus being shut down.

Authorities on the Belfield campus closed the track earlier this week, with an email circulated to students on Monday explaining that the track had become too slippery in wet conditions.

Construction work on the track began the following morning, leaving the university’s athletics club without a home.

The university said it hoped to be able to provide alternative athletics facilities on campus in the future, though that this would be dependant on funding becoming available.

The club, which claims to be the most decorated of UCD’s sports clubs, has been whipping up student support for a campaign to ‘Save the Track’ – and this video, uploaded to YouTube this morning by , shows how they’ve been trying it.

The track is one of the best-known venues in Irish athletics – as the Irish Times’ Ian O’Riordan reported earlier this week, the world record for the 4×1-mile relay, at 15:49.08, was set on the course in 1985.

That record – set by a group of famed middle-distance runners including world champion Eamonn Coghlan – still stands today, though the distance is rarely run, with the 4x1500m distance more common in the modern era.

The track was also the home to occasional visits by athletics clubs from the locale, and hosted the annual Goal Mile charity race on Christmas Day.