The Geirino municipal multi-sports complex in Ovada, in the province of Alessandria, has several sports facilities, including a summer/winter swimming pool, outdoor and indoor five-a-side football pitches, tennis courts and beach volleyball courts, and a natural grass football pitch surrounded by a 400-metre, 6-lane athletics track.

Built in the 1980s, the track was now in a dilapidated condition, which was further aggravated after the flooding event of 4 October 2021 when the town was flooded by the waters of the Orba torrent.

By that date, however, the project to remake the track had already been outlined, the work on which, entrusted in 2022, was completed at the end of last summer. 

The intervention ensured the upgrading of the existing athletics track in Ovada with the latest quality features and therefore with an absolutely relevant potential longevity.

When the work was completed, a sports centre of certain excellence was created in which athletes will be able to train, qualify their training, and carry out competitive activities.

Specifically, the project included the renovation of most of the areas of the athletics track; in addition to the entire track ring, the double platform for the long jump and triple jump on the west side, parallel to the 110-metre straight, the renovation and completion of the partial lunette in the south area of the track (where the javelin throwing platform was also rebuilt) and the renovation of the pole vaulting platform in the north lunette.

Pole vaulting platform; section of the hedge pit; section of the track at the jumps lunette and the project plan.

The latter, which is currently made of natural grass, will hopefully be adapted to the requirements of the FIDAL regulations, in order to fill the existing gaps and make the track compliant with the requirements of the National Regulations.

There are also plans to adapt the existing lighting system in order to improve energy efficiency by replacing the existing lighting fixtures with LED fixtures, and with the illumination required by the regulations in order to obtain FIDAL homologation.