Kingston, Jamaica —Minister of the Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange has lauded the team of workers who participated in the resurfacing of the running track at the National Stadium.

Grange in a media release on Wednesday, said the resurfacing work has been completed ahead of schedule and that the taxpayers would not be required to pay more than the amount of US$350,000, which was budgeted for the project.

The resurfacing work was led by track suppliers, Rekortan, working closely with Independence Park Limited.

The Rekortan vice president, Tim Jordan, assured the minister about the quality of the new surface.

“I would say that this track has been resurfaced and the quality of the track is fantastic and the quality is second to none relative to the resurfacing that we’ve put [on] top of the existing surface for sure,” said Jordan.

Another Rekortan vice president, Doug Stone, who leads the installation of running tracks across North America, said the National Stadium has been improved.

“The number one thing that we did is help the performance and also take away any of the safety issues that you had and took care of some of the problems that were underneath the track surface,” Stone said. “So I believe that your performance is going to be at a level as good as before or better. And I feel that you have a world-class running surface here.”

Asked whether the track had been downgraded by the works, Stone replied: “No, not at all.” He explained that “the track has not been de-rated. You still have a surface that went over a world-class one certification and what we’ve done is we’ve installed the surface and all of our lane line markings and event markings are at a class one certified running track.”

In the meantime, the venue director for Grand Slam Track, Don Lockerbie, also sought to address reports about the certification of the track.

“The track in its current condition right now is world-class, and it’s going to perform beautifully… We absolutely are thrilled with the fact that this track now will perform to the highest international standards possible. And so any record set on this track will stand. The track certification is class one. And it wouldn’t have to go through another classification until the end of its five-year standings. So for us, it’s still class one,” he said.

“Our relationship at Grand Slam Track with the minister, with the government, with the IPL, with Major Brown has been nothing but stellar; and we’ve all worked really hard and well together to put this beautiful track together. We wanted to make sure that everybody understood that it’s safe and it’s going to be fast, and it’s certainly beautiful in the colours of the Jamaican flag,” he added.