WOODBURY — Are you used to running on flat tracks with hard surfaces? Taking a trip to facilities like the New Balance Track in Boston will show you just how nice running on a good track is.
Some people might ask what the difference is between running on a banked track and a flat one is. Although they are both 200-meter oval tracks, their designs set them apart. Banked tracks have elevated turns that allow athletes to maintain speed on the turns. In fact, banked tracks are actually proven to make runners faster, especially in shorter events like the 300 meters and 4×200 relay.
Connecticut is lacking in indoor track facilities, especially ones with banked tracks. Yale University is the only location in Connecticut that has a banked track. This track was mainly built for the purpose of hosting college meets and practices for athletes on the Yale indoor track team. There is only one meet a year at Yale that is open to high school athletes, so athletes are either forced to travel out of state or run on flat tracks.
Gianna Perugini, freshman on Nonnewaug’s indoor track team, recently went to the Armory in Manhattan for the first time.
“A lot of tracks in Connecticut aren’t banked, so being able to run on a banked track for the first time was a really cool experience,” Perugini shares. “Overall the track there was better. I feel like the banked track made me do better.”
At the Millrose Games on Feb. 8, Yared Nuguse set a new men’s indoor track mile world record. Earlier that meet, American Grant Fisher also broke the indoor 3,000 world record. The Millrose Games were held at the Armory, which features banked turns.
There is a reason big events like New Englands, nationals, and college championships are not held in Connecticut. Why would they be when other places in the region have better facilities with faster and nicer tracks?
Athletes who run indoor track in Connecticut are missing out on the opportunity to run on faster tracks.
This is the opinion of Maddie Garguilo, a freshman All-State indoor track runner at Nonnewaug and reporter for the Chief Advocate.
