National Gymnastics Center in Kostolac - first hall in Serbia with landing pit

By the end of year 2009, all construction works on the exterior of the National Gymnastics Center in Kostolac will be finished. It will be the first facility for gymnastics in our country to have a landing pit. The open competition for selection of the contractor for the roof and interior works is underway.

- This gymnastics center is an annex of the Sports hall. The roof structure has already been finished, as well as the exterior facade and carpentry. The works on roof cover and the hall's interior are in the pipeline. The flooring will be made of teraflex, in accordance with the certification of the Gymnastics Association of Serbia and European Athletics Association – Zoran Vuković, the President of the Committee for supervising construction of the facility, told "eKapija".

Construction of that facility commenced in 2007, and company "Stig" from Požarevac has been in charge of all the previous works.

According to Mr. Vuković, the project that was elaborated in 2006 by architectural studio "Naša kuća" anticipated about 30m RSD worth of investments. So far, 14m RSD have been provided from the funds of the Municipal Development Fund of Požarevac and the Ministry of Youth and Sport.

National Gymnastics Center occupies 550 square meters of useful surface. Locker rooms and auxiliary premises will be built at additional 300 square meters. The Gymnastics Center will also comprise a gallery with 12 beds for the sportsmen to rest during the whole-day trainings. The area within the center will be exclusively used for trainings, while the gymnastics competitions will be held in the Sports hall, just like before.

According to Mr. Vuković, no hall in Serbia has a landing pit for gymnastic exercises.

- The surface of the pit will amount to 54 square meters, and it will be 1.5 meters deep. The pit is filled with sponge, and gymnastics apparatus are placed behind the pit. The quantity of sponge in the pit depends on the skills of a sportsman. The filling of the pit with sponge costs 3m RSD – says Vuković.

He says that the Gymnastics Association has given them the equipment from the Universiade, and he hopes that they will be able to keep the equipment because one set of apparatus they got is worth 10m RSD.

The idea for such sports center came from Kostolac-based Physical Education Organization "Partizan" because, as Vuković explains, it is one of the 3 most successful gymnastics clubs in Serbia.