The footprints of Olympians were all over the old track. The countless droplets of sweat, the sweat of All-Americans peppered the old surface. At times, the performances simply swiped your breath on that dark red artificial surface.Now a new track is in place in Kidd Field, ready for new footprints, new drops of sweat and new staggering performances. It is a beautiful bright blue with gray trim and a little bit of orange pinched in."It is a half-million-dollar project," UTEP athletic director Bob Stull said, "and Larry Durham helped us with it. The old track was over 12 years old and it was becoming really hard and that made it hard to train on. It was due. And it's beautiful. I really like the color and design."

UTEP head track and field coach Mika Laaksonen echoed those sentiments."I have pretty much asked everyone in our program and everyone really likes it," said Laaksonen, who is beginning his first season at the helm of the Miner program. "The sprinters, the jumpers, the throwers ... everyone likes it. I personally like the color scheme and I like using the orange. So far, everything is very positive. We've been using the ë-inch spikes and they usually tear up a surface pretty good and it looks good. It looks very promising."The old track was installed in 1997 and was not finished until almost time for the 1998 spring season. It was home to some amazing performances.

"We got our money's worth out of that track," said Bob Kitchens, who just retired after 20 years as the UTEP head coach. "It was time for a new track. The average life of one of those tracks is about eight years."There were some amazing performances on that track, though," Kitchens said. "Churandy (Martina) ran that 9.76 100 meters on that track. Blessing (Okagbare) ran a 10.7 hand time on that track. Those were two remarkable sprints on the track. Mickael (Hanany) jumped 7-foot-7 there. There have just been some remarkable performances -- long jumps, triple jumps, high jumps ... men and women."Of course, Obadele Thompson ran the incredible wind-aided 9.69 100-meters on yet another track in 1997 -- on his way to NCAA championships in the 100 and 200 meter dashes later that spring.

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