The athletics track at Estádio da Bela Vista has been the subject of a remodeling investment that cost around €520,000.
In his speech at the inauguration ceremony on Saturday, the mayor, Luís Encarnação, recalled that the track was built in 2009, and since then it had never been remodeled, so “it was urgent to carry out this requalification to provide it with the necessary conditions to be able to continue to do what it was created for: to provide the practice of sports activities”.
The mayor said that since the PS came to power in 2013, the number of people using the facility has increased from 30 to about 400, and they are now in better fitness to practice the sport. In addition to the complete refurbishment of the track, he also highlighted the construction of a ramp for the athletes to work with strength, which is an asset.
With these improvements, the municipality is also better prepared to host major events, international internships and national and international athletics competitions, therefore able to “capture even more athletes and assert itself as a municipality that strongly bets on sport”.
In addition to the sporting aspect, this growing attraction of athletes, teams and competitions has positive consequences in economic terms. In the last year in which this impact was measured, 2019, “the municipality received 27,500 athletes, who directly injected around 1.8 million euros into the local economy”, said Luís Encarnação.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by an important name in national athletics, Patrícia Mamona, and the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Correia.
The official praised the commitment that the municipality of Lagoa has been making in the creation of better infrastructures for the practice of sports and also highlighted the fact that in the municipality there is “a highly successful experience: a support unit for high performance in the school, which makes so that young sportsmen who attend school can reconcile their sporting life with their academic career”.
João Paulo Correia took the opportunity to ensure that the Government will invest more in the support it provides to Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
