The inside track is important in China

Sports officials in northeast China have claimed the gold medal for incompetence after authorising the construction of a running track with right-angled corners.

The track was completed recently as part of a major refurbishment of a 100,000 sq ft stadium in Heilongjiang province’s Tonghe County...

But the running track’s designers got their angles badly wrong – painting 90-degree corners onto the track rather than the usual curves...

When senior Communist Party leaders recently announced plans for a last-minute visit to the stadium, a quick makeover suddenly became necessary. Painting right angles was faster than painting curves, one official admitted.

“In order to get it ready for the leaders, we painted it like that,” he confessed. “We think it is ugly too but if the leaders don’t ask us to change it, what are we supposed to do?”