University College Dublin (UCD) has received a €3 million donation from an anonymous person to fund the cost and maintenance of a new athletics track.

The University has been waiting almost seven years for a new facility after the previous track, which currently serves as a student carpark, was ripped up in 2011.

The donation will cover the entire cost of the project, which is estimated to cost around €3 million, as well as maintenance of the track for the next 20 years. 

The brand new track-and-field facility will be located in the Sports and Recreation Character Area on the campus.

??????????? Donor steps in to fund new athletics track for University College Dublin https://t.co/106s97yYv3 pic.twitter.com/OYMLAdpAWP

— University College Dublin (@ucddublin) January 25, 2018

UCD President, Professor Andrew Deeks welcomed the donation.

He said: "With the support of a major philanthropic donation, the University is proud to announce that it is now able to move forward with the design, planning and development of a new athletics track on the Belfield campus."

"The lack of an athletics track on the campus has put additional pressure on our athletes, some of whom have had to commute daily between campus and off-campus facilities for their training sessions."

"We are grateful to these athletes and to the wider university community for their patience."

He added that the University have always wanted to have a "world-class" athletics track, but didn't have sufficient funding to do so. 

"We are extremely grateful to the anonymous philanthropist who stepped into the breach, and whose generous donation will now fully enable the track project and the maintenance of the track for the next twenty years, after which the university is committed to maintaining the track."

"Our entire university community owes an enormous debt of gratitude to this donor, and to all donors to the University, for the remarkable generosity that is enabling us to transform the teaching, research and sporting facilities on campus for this generation and for generations to come."

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