Even last fall, the Kaunas city municipality and representatives of “Autokaustas”, who carried out the reconstruction, ensured that “the running tracks and other athletic sectors around the football field were equipped with a three-layer layer of pellets of the highest quality. , certified by the World Athletics Federation, which minimizes the chance of injuries to athletes”.
At that time, many people took the eye and chose an unusual color – dark gray, the color of the trains running.
As then project manager “Autokaustas” Lauras Zakars explained last fall, this color creates a kind of optical illusion for the spectators that the square is closer. Most of the paths are marked in red or blue.
“Austra Skujytė (Lithuanian lightweight athlete, heptathlete, decathlete – ot. past) has previously evaluated carpets. They did not say anything about the color, but they were very satisfied with the coating itself,” claimed the representative of the company that did the reconstruction last September.
Today, nonetheless, the surface of carpet is the subject of criticism and mocking jokes – it’s snowflakes.
“There was a drought. The grass turned brown, the ground cracked,” joked a representative of the sports community.
“I think that according to the new conditions, additional obstacles were created in the 3,000 m steeplechase. This is how the stadium is thinking to add another star to the IAAF rankings,” was the comment.
Looking for reasons
how 15 min Paulius Pachomovs, Deputy Head of the Construction Management Department of the Kaunas City Municipality Administration, explained the situation in the municipality.
“The contractors fixed the cracks. The specialists are investigating the reasons why this could happen. So far, to our knowledge, the athletes have not faced any problems during the competition,” he said.
There were also problems with the lawn
15 min recall that in May, a lot of gossip was caused by the crooked grass cut in the field of the stadium, carved with enigmatic ornaments, which Lithuanian football team coach Edgaras Jankauskas called “hyena fur”.
Then they fear that the oversight errors will not be corrected before the selection match on June 17, leaving the entire football community red-faced.
Not only that, but UEFA’s comments were also received regarding the improper cutting of the lawn.
nonetheless, it was time to return the lawn to its true color (according to the municipality, 8 people take care of the lawn in S.Darius and S.Girėnos Stadium). The excuse is that the most pronounced yellow sections are due to human error – a miscalculation of the required amount of fertilizer, and the lawn mowing curve is not straight – due to a lack of proper technique.
They announced that the necessary equipment will be purchased by the dealer in the future of the stadium, which may not be known until the end of the year. Until then, they promise special modern equipment for rent.
Until the dealer is selected, the stadium and the Kaunas sports hall are administered by the Kaunas sports school “Startas”, which has no action in the field of football turf maintenance.
As expected, this school is advised by professionals in their field, and systems and equipment are maintained by companies that specialize in these tasks.
This year, additional funding is allocated to “Start” to maintain the S. Darius and S. Girėnas stadium and the Kaunas sports hall. The money earned from renting objects is also used for this.
The construction of the stadium cost about 43 million dollars. euros.