Video: Jess Ennis-Hill’s track now just a dirt trail

The majority of Don Valley Stadium has now been turned to rubble. Picture: Scott Merrylees

And so too will it be treasured by many others for fond memories of notable music concerts staged by some of the world’s biggest stars - such as Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones.

Some 168 days after it closed to the public last September, the demolition of Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium is almost complete.

Bulldozers moved in on the iconic sports site in November and very little remains standing, with the running track now reduced to a dirt trail.

There is no official stance on how the site should be used in the future, with Sheffield City Council confirming yesterday that it remains open-minded as to how the site will be developed.

The decision to close the athletes venue was taken as part of Sheffield City Council’s attempts to save £50m in a year. It was costing the authority around £700,000 a year to run and needed major refurbishment, councillors concluded, as they rejected a last-minute appeal from a campaign group that collected nearly 6,000 signatures on a petition to save it.

The stadium was built for the 1991 World Student Games and, for a time, it was regarded as the best athletics venue in the UK.

Over the years, the stadium has been the home to other sports, including the Sheffield Eagles rugby league team and Rotherham United Football Club.

Ennis-Hill, who won heptathlon gold at the London 2012 Olympics was originally discovered when she attended a summer athletics event for children at Don Valley when she was ten-years-old. Since then, she used it as her base and said the facility was one of the reasons why she had not been tempted away from her home city.