55 great photos as Chichester's superb new running track opens for business

But thanks to the hard work of many organisations and people, the dream has become reality. And last Sunday, the Phil Baker Athletics Track was officially opened at the college – and put to the test by runners of all ages, who gave it a firm thumbs-up.

Phil himself – who is synonymous with athletics in Chichester and across Sussex for many decades, and is known to Observer and sussexworld.co.uk readers as the man who writes reports on Chi Runners all year round – did the honours, assisted by the club’s Rob Wiggins and Jim Garland, two of the people who have played vital roles in the project to make the £340k track dream come true.

Here is the background to the project – and on this page and those linked (or all on the single page if you are on the Observer app) are a wonderful selection of pictures from the day of the opening, taken by David Richardson and Ian Luxford.

You can read about the track on the back page of this week’s (July 2) Chichester Observer, and see more pictures in next week’s paper.