This is a Stadium, Not a Correctional Facility – One Shot Story

This is how the access point to a stadium has changed over time. From a place where people gather to have fun enjoying the performances of the soccer players, it has now been morphed into something more akin to a correctional facility.

I have witnessed this transformation first-hand, having coached a small team of javelin, shot put, discus and hammer throwers here since 1992. Year after year, the day after the Sunday match, when the stadium was made available again for track and field training, I saw the premises looking more and more like an urban riot zone and less and less like a place to prove oneself in various disciplines.

In a strange twist of fate, the stadium has become the only place where people willingly line up to be isolated and disciplined, but only for a few hours.

Shot at night, with a Ricoh GR IV Monochrome, the image is even more sadly explicit.

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