Watch Steve Cram’s surprise as Monkton Stadium’s track is renamed
Legendary athlete Steve Cram has been surprised at Monkton Stadium.
Steve Cram’s family and friends, along with South Tyneside’s civic dignitaries, gathered at Monkton Stadium on Monday, March 16 to surprise one of the world’s greatest middle-distance runners.
South Tyneside Council have rebranded the stadium to ‘Monkton Stadium, home of the Steve Cram Track’ as they honoured the Jarrow Arrow’s legendary career.
The stadium is where Steve’s talent for running was first nurtured during his time with Jarrow and Hebburn Athletics Club, with him later going on to become World 1500m Champion.
He also broke three world records within a 19-day period in 1985 in the 1,500m, 2,000m and the mile.
Cllr Tracey Dixon, Leader of South Tyneside Council, revealed that the local authority has been working on the surprise with Steve’s family for a number of weeks.
She said: “Steve is a huge ambassador for South Tyneside and sport - we all know this is where he trained as a child.
“Hopefully by naming it after Steve Cram, it will inspire other young people to come through and possibly become champions like Steve in the future.
“We’ve been working on this for a few weeks now with Steve’s partner so when I was walking to the unveiling, he was asking questions about what was happening.
“I think he was overwhelmed when he saw what was happening but it is only right that we should recognise such an inspiring person such as Steve.”
Following the reveal of the surprise, Steve stated that it was “a great honour” to have the track at Monkton Stadium named after him.
As well as the renaming of the track, new signage and displays across the stadium have been unveiled, including a new roadside welcome sign, exterior building signage and trackside storyboards recollecting Steve’s extraordinary world record achievements.
Despite his global success, Steve has remained deeply connected to South Tyneside and he continues to champion the borough as an ambassador, mentor and advisor, and plays a key role in promoting sport and physical activity locally.
Steve has most recently supported the Tidal Trails, which is a new South Shields-based running festival that has been developed in partnership with South Tyneside Council.
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