Polytan LigaTurf Cross, Rekortan M and Polytan SMART at the Charles Auray stadium
Reviving a traditional club
While Pantin may only be a small suburb on the north-eastern outskirts of Paris, football history was written here almost 100 years ago: when the two clubs Société Athlétique de Pantin and Étoile Parisienne merged in 1905, the Olympique de Pantin football club was created. This club went on to be the first French Cup winner (Coupe de France) in 1917/18 under the name Olympique de Paris, but the club unfortunately disbanded just 10 years later.
Yet the story lives on: to mark 100 years since its foundation, Olympique de Pantin was revived – initially as a team made up of players from the OFCP and the football department of the CMS – the city’s two football clubs. Finally on 7 July 2005, Olympique de Pantin (OP F.C.) was officially launched and has since brought together all footballing efforts in Pantin.
Nowadays, the club alone has 21 football teams and plays in several stadiums, including the Charles Auray stadium. This facility is also used by the Pantin Multisports Club, which is home to numerous sports – currently 25 – including the athletics club, which mainly uses the stadium’s circular track.
Given that the sports facility is used so frequently, a decision was made to lay a hard-wearing synthetic turf on the football pitch and a synthetic surface on the running track. Therefore, in 2020/2021, our Polytan LigaTurf Cross synthetic turf was installed with a cork infill, a Rekortan M brick red running track, as well as Polytan SMART – this system provides detailed documentation and analyses training performance.
Our Rekortan M professional surface has already proven its durability and suitability for competitions over several decades. It impresses professional athletes, coaches and amateurs worldwide thanks to its excellent acceleration and impressive step elasticity. Furthermore, it is enormously fast and gains favour with athletes and sports therapists alike thanks to its high cushioning and excellent sport medical values. The poured in-situ surface, in which the granules are sprinkled with a visible tip, is made for spikes and is also waterproof. It is equally suitable for competitive running tracks, school sports facilities and athletics stadiums such as the Charles Auray stadium.
The running track in Pantin was also equipped with Polytan SMART, our system for measuring and documenting training performance – the perfect solution for professional athletes and ambitious runners. Polytan SMART not only enables precise time measurements and performance diagnostics for classic running sports, but it can also measure an athlete’s run-up in the long jump or when pole vaulting. The results help direct your training more effectively and improve performance in a controlled, sustainable way.
The Polytan SMART system consists of integrated timing gates in the ground, a measurement sensor weighing only 15 grams, and the tried-and-tested diagnostics software from our partner Humotion, or alternatively, the user’s own smartphone. The Polytan SMART timing gates are totally maintenance-free magnetic timing gates using permanent magnets, which are permanently and securely installed in the ground. In contrast to other systems, no elaborate preparation, construction or renovation is needed for the measurements.
The football pitch was laid with Polytan LigaTurf Cross. The synthetic turf system cleverly combines straight and textured filaments. The benefits of both turf types are therefore combined to create the perfect football pitch – not only in terms of appearance and feel, but also in terms of low and easy maintenance, greater infill stability and increased turf volume. What’s more, our LigaTurf Cross is now also available as a carbon-neutral football pitch: LigaTurf Cross GT zero. For our latest development, the LigaTurf Cross GTR, we now use recycled material in addition to renewable raw materials.
