A TEAM of Gwent athletes is finally back at home after being forced to spend months away because of technical problems with a stadium's running track.

Cwmbran Stadium's athletics track has re-opened after a nightmare summer which saw endless delays and the cancellation of a major event - The National Youth Athletics meeting on July 18.

Resident team, the Cwmbran Harriers celebrated its return to the stadium on Tuesday night, and according to club chairman Ken Hunt, athletes gave the running surface a resounding thumbs up.

"It's good to see the track finally being used for the purpose it was intended - it's absolutely brilliant," he said.

The stadium has been dogged by problems since it re-opened in 2002 after a £5m facelift.

The track cost £750,000 but in 2002 inspectors discovered water was not draining off the porous surface. Whole sections had to be re-laid throughout the autumn and spring of 2003.

In the summer of 2003 the track was checked again and air bubbles were discovered under the surface. Whole sections had to be re-laid again, and a warm-up event for the World Championships in Paris, scheduled a few days later, couldn't go ahead.

Repairs were delayed by weather, and contractors faced a race against time to get it ready for this summer, which they lost.

Now the Harriers are hoping the stadium's track problems are history. "The water appears to be running off properly, so subject to it passing an inspection, the track should be fine," said Mr Hunt.

He added: "It's thanks to the coaches really - they've had to find alternative venues which has been a headache. We'd also like to thank Newport and UWIC for helping us out."

Councillor Glyn Caron, Torfaen council's executive member for leisure said: "We would like to thank our customers, who have been really patient. Charles Lawrence Group Surfaces Ltd have worked really hard. It's brilliant to see it open again."