China built Right-Angled Running Track

The strange news about Chinese sports officials make the rounds online after authorizing the construction of a rectangular running track.

Chinese sports officials painted 90-degree corners onto the track at a stadium as they rushed preparations for a visit by their superiors, state media reported on Tuesday.

China National Radio described the forestry administration 100,000 sq ft stadium in Tonghe County, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, as having "rectangular tracks" around the football pitch.

A bemused local told Newsnight, “It all looks jolly good - apart from the track which doesn’t really look up to standard.”

image source: Youtube

A reporter from Newsnight, a regional television program, went to the stadium to examine the track’s unconventional curvatures and took a run on the track. “I felt a bit strange at the turn,” Li Xiao’ang, the reporter, said after attempting his first onscreen lap.

A local woman named Xiao Gong was also invited to take a run around the right angles. She said, “It was quite tricky taking the corner. It would be easy to fall.”

“It is strange indeed. Normally curves speed people up but these corners slow you down. It is quite inconvenient,” she added after her attempts to run on the track.

The stadium officials explained that the previous track had curves but said its rubber surface had become severely worn down by long use.

When senior Communist Party leaders recently announced plans for a last-minute visit to the stadium, a quick makeover suddenly became necessary. An official admitted that painting right angles was faster than painting curves.

“In order to get it ready for the leaders, we painted it like that,” he confessed. “We think it is ugly too but if the leaders don’t ask us to change it, what are we supposed to do?”

Professional athletes and sports experts were both contemptuous, noting that a track like this could cause serious injuries. “Right angle corners will slow a runner down and stop them in achieving good results,” said Li Yuxue, the head of Heilongjiang’s Track and Field Sports Administration.

Zhang Yong, a long distance runner, said the track was a disgrace to his profession. “It’s impossible to run on such a surface,” he added.

Many netizens from China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo expressed their dismay. The news became the social media joke this week.

Now, who wants to compete in Olympic Games if you will run on this kind of track?