1st November 2007

Commercial Partners For World Cross Country Championships

1 November 2007

 

Five commercial partners announced with shared ambition to deliver best ever IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

 

With less than 150 days remaining until the world’s greatest cross country runners and thousands of supporters gather in Scotland’s inspiring capital for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, on 30 March 2008, an impressive list of five commercial partners has been announced.

 

Highland Spring, Hire Intelligence, Renault, Capital Solutions and Radio Forth have all been added to the burgeoning list of event partners as the countdown to the Championships continues at pace – and with less than five months remaining, Fast Track are still in talks to secure a title sponsor for the event, which will also include title rights to Saturday’s Young Athletes’ Relays and the Sunday morning mass participation 5k race.

 

The deals to date, brokered by scottishathletics and Fast Track – the market leading sports event, communication, consulting and rights marketing agency, are sure to enhance the profile of the Championships, which mark the 30th anniversary of the last World Cross Country Championships to be hosted in Scotland, the 6th ever IAAF World Cross Country Championships, held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, on Saturday 25 March 1978.

 

On this occasion it is hoped that the continued popularity of cross country is celebrated by Edinburgh playing host to a record number of entrants (currently 72) from every continent – and a crowd of up to 10,000 – in the weekend’s showcase event, shown live by BBC television.

 

Gordon Hood, Marketing Manager, scottishathletics said:

"We are delighted to have this fantastic support from the business community and are thrilled to welcome these partners to the growing sponsor family. The IAAF World Cross Country Championships 2008 are a massive coup for scottishathletics, but without this backing we would be unable to put on what we hope will be the best ever Championships in the event’s history."

 

Marc Hope, Director of Rights Marketing at Fast Track said:

"We are very proud to be able to announce five such exciting names to support the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships. They will play a special role in ensuring the Championships are both a huge success and leave a lasting legacy in an Olympic year which marks the four year countdown to London 2012 – and – as we all cross our fingers for the official announcement on 9 November – the countdown to the Commonwealth Games in – hopefully – Glasgow, in 2014.

 

"We are in advanced conversations with other potential partners at this time, and the opportunity remains to join the increasingly impressive list of commercial partners and to become involved in this high profile, world class event – where we hope we will see a victorious return for Paula Radcliffe."

 

Edinburgh staged the European Cross Country Championships at the Holyrood Park venue in 2003, an event which is still widely regarded as being the best ever in the 20 year history of that event. This helped to create a lasting legacy for cross country running in this country.