FACILITIES at the venue that helped hone the talents of celebrated Olympians Roger Black, Kriss Akabusi and Iwan Thomas are so dire they are undermining the city’s premier athletics club in creating an Olympic legacy.

Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre toilets are so grim that Southampton Athletic Club – which boasts more than 600 members – has to advise its bright, new generation of track and field talent to make sure they “spend a penny” before they leave home.

There’s scant shelter if it rains and someone has to lug water from a standpipe just to make a cup of tea.

Now, following a celebratory event to mark the first anniversary of the club’s thriving junior academy, hopes are high that it can work hand in hand with Sport England, Southampton City Council and Sports Centre managers Active Nation to deliver the facilities they deserve.

Down the years Southampton has boasted a proud tradition of producing top-drawer athletes, including Roger Black, Iwan Thomas, Kriss Akabusi, Todd Bennett and the late Donna Hartley (nee Murray).

Daily Echo: Roger Black

Yet there is no denying that those stars rose to global greatness in spite of the Sports Centre facilities rather than because of them.

Over the past 12 months Southampton AC’s Academy has blossomed with over 100 youngsters, aged between eight and 13, taught the basic disciplines of running, throwing and jumping every Wednesday evening.

“The academy has been a tremendous success,” said Andy Fisher, the club’s young athletes team manager who masterminded the project. “We are quite literally a living, breathing post-Olympics legacy.

“But lack of facilities are holding us back. “Our first advice to the children is not ‘make sure you bring a pair of spikes with you’, it’s ‘make sure you go to the loo before you get here!’

“We have no running water, nowhere safe for the children to go to the toilet unattended, the changing block has been condemned and the small stand, which The Echo helped us get years ago, is now falling apart.

“The track itself was re-laid in 2010 and is in good condition but, in order to offer a far wider group the opportunity to compete, it needs to have a clubhouse and improved facilities alongside it.

“We are succeeding in spite of the facilities we have. Imagine what we could do if we improved them.”

The athletics club has been lobbying the City Council and Active Nation and, encouragingly, both parties - along with Sport England - attended the Academy's first anniversary celebrations.

Daily Echo: Iwan Thomas

Nigel Greene, contract manager at Southampton City Council, confirmed: "We're looking to work together on developing a fully costed improvement programme involving all users of the Sports Centre. The priority would be to give assistance to the athletics club because they are the biggest users.

"Whilst there isn't a budget identified from a council perspective, we're keen to work together and see what we can do as a group to help all Sports Centre users, of which there are many thousands each month.

"We will start this year with a public consultation, engaging and talking with people to see what facilities we need."

Jon Horne of Sport England agreed: "There would have to be a contribution from all parties to make it happen. We'd be looking at a sizeable pot split three ways between ourselves, the City Council and Active Nation."

That news was music to the ears of Southampton Olympian Christine Benning, now club and coach support officer for England Athletics.

"Facilities haven't improved here since I was running in the early 80s," she said.

"The club has grown exponentially since then and it's time they had better facilities.

"I'd love to host coaching courses and weekend workshops here for coaches and officials, but it's impossible because of the lack of meeting rooms, changing facilities and somewhere to go if it rains.

"You have to lug containers of water from the standpipe just to make a cup of tea."

Active Nation are in year three of a 15-year contract managing Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre.

Contract manager Mark Learnihan said: "With increasing rates of obesity, we're a charity with a mission to persuade people to be active and we want to develop the Sports Centre in any way we can to increase participation in sport.

"We'll align ourselves with the Council, Sport England and the athletics club and, with all parties working together, there is a way forward.

"There are very few places like this in the whole of the UK, an outdoor centre with so many sports and diversification.

"There's a unique amphitheatre with the athletics track as its focal point and it's the most multi-used facility we have in the city."

Phil Green, director of the Sport Solent arm of Southampton Solent University, who also use the Sports Centre, politely described the facilities as "a bit tired."

"They haven't changed since I was about ten competing in the Southampton Schools' Athletics Championships back in the 60s," he said.

"Hopefully Active Nation can inject something into the Sports Centre that the Council couldn't.

"It's such a potentially iconic facility which could be the envy of every other city in the country. But, as a city, we've never taken full advantage of that.

"If you include the golf course, the Centre runs for miles, as far as the eye can see. There are not many places you go to with that sort of potential."