The first weekend in June of this year will bring the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Blackburn track at Witton Park.
On June 6 1958, the Lancashire Track and Field Championships were staged at this venue.
It was the policy of the County Committee at that time to honour the opening of new facilities by taking their championship meeting to grace the occasion.
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This was the first major promotion to come to Blackburn and there were many more to follow it.
The same meeting returned on several occasions; Northern Championships featured regularly and the 1966 English Schools Championships brought the country's top youngsters to this part of East Lancashire.
American Olympic coach Clarence Robison was here with his Brigham Young University team and declared the track to be one of the fastest in Europe.
He was saying what was already becoming generally known.
The ever-supportive Blackburn Council sponsored a series of invitation meetings to popularise the centre and these attracted a number of all-time greats.
Derek Ibbotson, Lyn Davies, Bruce Tulloh, Adrian Metcalf, Ron Hill, Mary Peters, Barrie Kelly, Barry Williams, Dorothy Shirley and many others performed here and were cheered on by thousands of spectators who thronged the perimeter fence. Blackburn had become the athletics centre of the north and those halcyon evenings will never be forgotten.
The advent of all-weather synthetic tracks put Witton's fortunes on the wane, but in 1982 the council again opened its purse and a new all-weather track was laid.
Blackburn Harriers, who were principal users of Witton Park, saw their fortunes rise and fall in step with developments of the track.
Now they have reached new heights with a joint men's and women's senior team starting the season in the Premier Division of the North of England Track and Field League.
This is bringing a new level of competition to East Lancashire and the first home fixture will be on June 7 - just a day after the 50th birthday' of the track.
By way of celebration, the Blackburn club will donate four individual prizes for achievements at the meeting: for best performances by men and women in Track and Field events.
Olympic sprinter and England and Great Britain Team captain Barrie Kelly will be there to present these awards on this memorable occasion.
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