Fastest Track in World Possible for London Olympics

(ATR) The London 2012 Velodrome unveiled Tuesday is being hailed as a "stunning venue built for champions" by LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe.

The 6,000-seat arena is the first of the Olympic Park venues to be completed. Its sweeping 250-meter track is made from 56km of Siberian pine, held in place by some 350,000 nails. The project took 2,500 construction workers two years to complete.

"This will be the crucible in which our future champions will be formed," proclaimed London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Triple gold medal winner Chris Hoy and fellow Beijing champions Victoria Pendleton and Jason Kenny led the GB team round numerous circuits of the track where they hope to replicate the achievements of 2008.

Olympic Delivery Authority chairman John Armitt said that the venue had been built to time and on budget.

In legacy it will be utilized by both elite athletes and the community, augmented by road and BMX circuits just outside.

UCI President Pat McQuaid tells Around the Rings that the track is set to be the fastest in the world.

"This will be a fantastic showcase both cycling and the city of London. Its 10 million inhabitants can be proud of what has been built here.

"The way it’s been designed with the specific sub-structure will make it very fast indeed."

There will be 10 gold medals awarded at the velodrome next year, five for men and five for women, in a six-day meet from August 2 to 7.

The seats have been designed to create as much spectator noise as possible, sweeping round the length of the track rather than just the two straights. The expectation is that this will create a `wall of sound` to roar theBritonson to multi-medal success.

"It’s amazing, absolutely fabulous…and it will be even more amazing at the Olympic Games," said an excited Shanaze Reade, a member of the women’s sprint team and also tipped to medal in BMX.

"This facility is really, really special but the legacy after the Games will be the biggest benefit to cycling."

One cyclist attending the unveiling remembered another cycling track – the one on which he raced during the 1948 London Games.

Tommy Godwin, 90, two-time bronze medalist from 1948, looked around in awe at an arena very different from the one where he earned his Olympic glory.

"The cycling in 1948 took place at Herne Hill, an outdoor track," Godwin told Around The Rings.

"It was a barrage balloon site from World War II made of concrete. They simply laid asphalt on top of it and that was that…You made grooves in the surface everytime you went on it. But at that time we knew no different, it was the `mecca` of cycling to us."

Written and reported in London by Adrian Hill.