History

The Juliska Stadium was opened in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Repu­blic, in 1960. Having under­gone exten­sive altera­tions in 1975, the stadium now holds around 18,800 spec­ta­tors with seating for 8,150, some sections of which are covered. The sports faci­lity has a 105 x 68 metre real grass playing field surrounded by a tartan track, which makes it suitable for foot­ball as well as track and field athle­tics. The stadium is owned by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Repu­blic.

Juliska Stadium used to be the home ground of the FK Dukla Prag foot­ball club, an army team which cele­brated its grea­test sporting successes in the 1950s and 1960s. The club of the same name was promoted back to the top flight of Czech foot­ball in the 2010/11 season, thus enab­ling it to relive past glories. And the track and field athletes of ASC Dukla Prag can look back on the club’s illus­trious history, with Olympic medal­lists and world cham­pions such as Jan Železny, Roman Šebrle, Tomáš Dvořák, Barbora Špotá­ková among others.

As well as matches in the top divi­sion of Czech foot­ball, the annual Memo­riál Josefa Odložila athle­tics meeting is also held here.

Re-topping systems

The ageing running track was fully refur­bished by Polytan between July and September 2018.

Re-topping systems are a profes­sional solu­tion for worn running tracks in need of renewal. Old surfaces can be physi­cally and visually renewed to provide optimum trai­ning and compe­ti­tion condi­tions once more.

Re-topping systems are a very econo­mical solu­tion for refur­bis­hing athle­tics tracks and sports faci­li­ties as the exis­ting elastic subs­truc­tures can be used again, meaning they are used over the long term and do not need to be disposed.

The track

Rekortan PUR, a water-imper­meable, multi-layer poured in-situ system also made by Polytan, was chosen as the new retop­ping system. This high-speed sports surface offers very fast acce­le­ra­tion combined with optimum shock absorp­tion proper­ties, making it the ideal base for personal bests, new records and inter­na­tional elite sport.

The tartan track was certi­fied for this purpose by the IAAF after being refur­bished. The Capri blue outside section does not need to meet the requi­re­ments of runners, so it was fitted with an all-round surface from Polytan. This has a smooth surface with good ball bounce beha­viour and is gene­rally used for multi­pur­pose faci­li­ties such as in schools.

The colours

Not only does the refur­bished tartan track in Juliska Stadium have a surface which is ideally suited to running shoes with spikes thanks to its new inters­persed granules, it has also been laid in some glea­ming new colours. As well as the conven­tional brick red circular track, the two D‑shaped inside sections were installed in a glowing rosé colour and the outer circum­fe­rence in a bright Capri blue at the client’s request.

Rosé and Capri blue are among the 24 stan­dard colours of Polytan. Inno­va­tive synthetic mate­rials and sealing systems are used to make them insen­si­tive to factors such as heat, UV rays, frost and rain or mecha­nical influences during opera­tion.

SmarTracks technology

Juliska Stadium was the first stadium in the Czech Repu­blic to have Polytan Smar­Tracks installed. This is a data logging system which takes accu­rate measu­re­ments and faci­li­tates daily trai­ning diagno­stics without costly tech­nical struc­tures. As well as perfor­mance diagno­stics, Smar­Tracks includes a precise time-measu­re­ment system. It keeps a record of running time, speed, step length, step frequency and jump height. The analysis tool is thus suitable for disci­plines such as short‑, middle- and long-distance running, hurdles and relays. Another special feature is that this tech­no­logy can be used to record the move­ment data of several athletes simul­ta­neously and then compare them.

The Polytan Smar­Tracks system is based on the inter­play of three compon­ents:

1. Smar­Tracks magnetic timing gates embedded in the track out of sight.
2. A wais­t­belt with a sensor weig­hing just 12 g; it is worn by the athlete but does not rest­rict freedom of move­ment. It can simply be worn as a belt or clipped on.
3. The tried-and-tested Smar­Tracks diagno­stics soft­ware by Polytan partner Humo­tion. This company specia­lises in captu­ring and analy­sing human motion data.

Inci­den­tally, it wasn’t just the running track that bene­fited from the sophisti­cated tech­no­logy in Prague – so did the pole vault area, which now offers optimal trai­ning condi­tions as a result.