Don Valley Athletics Stadium, Sheffield, England

In 1987 the City of Sheffield successfully bid to host the 1991 World Student Games. Preparations for the games included the replacement of a number of outmoded recreational facilities with world class sporting venues. Perhaps the flagship of these new facilities was to be a stadium of international standards for the athletics events and the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. The original aim to complete the project in time to hold one major event before the Student Games was achieved. On the 15th of September, 1990, a near capacity crowd of 23,000 - the largest at such an event in Britain for 30 years - attended an inaugural athletics meeting.