Athletics club
AVA’70 stands for Atletiekvereniging Aalten (Aalten Athletics Club) and was founded in 1970. The club has its own athletics facility on Bredevoortsestraatweg.
Foundation
In the late 1960s Aalten’s sporting life was gripped by the highly popular inter-town competition Zeskamp. Months of hard training were required to complete the various events successfully, so the people competing for top honours needed considerable athletic ability. When Aalten’s Zeskamp years came to an end, some participants felt it was a shame for all that training to go to waste. That more or less gave rise to the idea of putting it to further use.
And so, in 1970, Atletiekvereniging Aalten — better known as AVA’70 — was born. Dick Schoppers and Gerrit Heusinkveld were important driving forces behind its foundation, together with other early members Jan Raben, Henny Jansen and Gerrit Heinen. From the very beginning, the Tebroke and te Brake families have also formed a recurring thread throughout the club’s history.
There was hardly any proper accommodation or equipment. Loohuisbos, centred on ‘the little pond’, became the club’s first training ground. Cyclists simply leaned their bikes against a tree and headed into the woods. The warm-up route was usually the ‘horse circuit’. Anyone arriving late would run in the opposite direction and eventually meet the rest of the runners. Sprint distances were run around the pond, while longer work took place on the ‘kilometre circuit’. Despite the makeshift conditions, these were wonderful years that are still remembered with some nostalgia. They were also the roots of the most successful AVA’70 runner in the club’s history, Gerard Tebroke. Several leading athletes from the national and international athletics world trained alongside him and left their mark in Loohuisbos.
Facilities
By the end of the 1970s, Loohuisbos no longer met the requirements of the time. The club had grown considerably and increasing numbers of young people were joining. For younger athletes in particular, a woodland setting was no longer suitable: they needed to become familiar with the different disciplines of athletics through play and structured training. A proper athletics field therefore became necessary. After several earlier attempts, the Municipality of Aalten was once again told that the situation was no longer tenable and that a suitable dedicated facility was needed.
It was not until 1985 that the Hamelandbaan came into use. This was not a full athletics track but a training ground with a 300-metre grass track, 100-metre sprint lanes and long-jump pits. The central field included facilities for high jump, javelin, shot put and various ball games. Until then AVA’70 had essentially been a club for runners, but the technical disciplines could now also be developed. From that point onwards the club grew rapidly.
Before a partly surfaced track was laid in 1998, AVA’70 had again been in discussions with the Municipality of Aalten about a full athletics facility including a 400-metre competition track. Because the club and municipality could not agree on the location of a new site, the plan unfortunately did not go ahead.
Membership continued to rise. In spring 2012 the club celebrated the registration of its 400th member, and in November 2013 it reached another milestone when its 500th member joined.
After lengthy and difficult discussions, the Municipality of Aalten built a brand-new 300-metre track at the existing complex on Bredevoortsestraatweg. AVA’70 itself took responsibility for constructing a fine multifunctional clubhouse. The complex has been in use since the winter of 2013, fulfilling a long-held ambition. With these new facilities, AVA’70 was well prepared for the future and able to offer its members excellent opportunities to enjoy their sport.