UK Athletics agrees major joint venture in bid to boost sport
UK Athletics has linked up with the organisers of the London Marathon and Great North Run in a joint venture to boost the popularity and growth of the sport.
Athletic Ventures – an amalgamation of UKA, The Great Run Company and London Marathon Events – will lead the potential bidding process to host the World Athletics Championships in 2029. The new company will also look for fresh commercial partners for athletics in the United Kingdom, after UK Athletics posted losses of £3.7million for the last financial year.
It hopes to restore the popularity of British athletics to its 1980s heyday when the likes of Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Daley Thompson and Fatima Whitbread were household names. UKA chief Jack Buckner said: “This is a groundbreaking model for the development of athletics and for major sports events in the UK and we believe our new partnership will transform the future of athletics in this country.
“Athletics is the most watched sport at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and millions in the UK will be watching the Diamond League at the London Stadium.
“Hundreds of millions across the globe will be following the action from the stadium in Paris, putting our sport and our great athletes – such as Molly Caudery, Hannah Cockroft, Keely Hodgkinson, Matthew Hudson-Smith and Josh Kerr – front of mind. We pledge to build on this huge opportunity to rejuvenate British athletics, working alongside our home country partners, to restore our sport to the popularity of the golden days of the 1980s.”