A Papanui Toc H athlete warms up on the track.

The days of a four-hour round trip for a 12 second dash are over.

Christchurch athletes needing to run 100 metres on the track have been travelling to Timaru after the loss of QEII Park.

With the Nga Puna Wai sports hub still a long way off and construction of the first stage of the $100 million project set to start later this year, Christchurch remained without an all-weather athletics facility.

JONATHAN LEASK/FAIRFAX NZ Buzz Jones stands on the newly extended athletic track at Papanui High School that is named in his honour.

The Papanui Toc H Athletic Club is now the proud owner of a 130m, six-lane all-weather track at Papanui High School.

The track, named in honour of Canterbury athletics stalwart and Toc H coach Lawrence "Buzz" Jones, was 100m long but was extended by 30m and widened from three to six lanes.

Jones hoped the $150,000 track extension would alleviate some of the need to travel.

"It is a big deal for the athletics community of Christchurch," Jones said.

"Since QEII fell over, we have had nothing and we've lost a lot of good athletes because of it."

Canterbury Athletics development manager Anita Sutherland said the extended track should be well used.

"There are plenty of grass alternatives but they are not conducive to fast times," Sutherland said.

She said the extended track was a "superb training facility", but it had limitations for holding high-level competitions. Those would continue at the larger venues in Timaru, Nelson and Dunedin.

Papanui Toc H is looking at holding mid-week athletic meetings, including the 100m sprint and 110m hurdles.

As well as the track, the club has access to Papanui's long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put and discuss facilities, and an eight-lane 400m grass track.

Buzz believed other secondary schools and clubs would support the meetings, which were hoped to start in October, in time to prepare for the South Island Secondary School Championships.