Optimism is high as London Marathon Events and the Great Run Company help UK Athletics resurrect the sport’s fortunes
For a sport that has traditionally been plagued with infighting, the news that UK Athletics, London Marathon Events and the Great Run Company have joined forces to sign commercial sponsors and stage major events is both encouraging and historic.
While those three organisations have enjoyed a decent relationship over the years, the multiple organisations that make up athletics in Britain haven’t always got on too well. There has often been friction, for example, between home country federations like the old AAA of England and UK Athletics (or its predecessors like the British Athletic Federation and British Amateur Athletic Board).
Bodies such as the Fell Runners’ Association and English Schools Athletics Association also tend to do their own thing. Historically, the phrase “joined up thinking” is not one you would usually apply to the sport in Britain.
Yet now UKA, London Marathon and Great Run will now hopefully lead the way when it comes to the spirit of collaboration. “We believe in the power of togetherness,” said Hugh Brasher from LME during a video call with the British press on Monday (April 15) to announce the new partnership.
In some ways the deal sees the sport going a little ‘back to the future’ as there are shades of the set-up between UKA and Fast Track in the late 1990s and turn of the millennium. In those days UKA governed the sport while the London-based Fast Track were the marketing arm that found sponsorship and promoted the televised meetings. Until 2012, though, when the partnership ended and UKA decided to take everything in-house.
So is “Athletic Ventures”, as the partnership is called, the new Fast Track?
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
There is also a throwback to that period with the use of the words “from playground to the podium” as an apparently “new” and “innovative” sponsorship programme. Hmm, when it comes to sponsorship this is maybe true, but that catchy phrase is far from new and was used regularly by UKA when its main sponsor was Aviva.
Similarly, if you Google the term ‘Athletic Ventures’ you’ll see this is not original either as there is already a company in Australia with the same name, website and social media channels. Maybe if it had been called “Athletics Ventures” instead, they could have sidestepped this issue. “Athletic Ventures”, after all, implies that that the ventures are ‘athletic’ (that is, with toned muscles etc) as opposed to being ventures that are related to the sport of athletics.
Nit-picking aside, the news has been well-received within the sport. For these three mighty organisations to put aside their egos and domestic rivalries to come together in partnership is quite something.
I just hope it stands the test of time. Sadly too many governing body announcements don’t amount to anything, really. Remember the “Age of the Athlete” launch in 2021, for example?
I’m optimistic that this time it will be different, though, and wish them best of luck in resurrecting the fortunes of the sport. Most of all, their task will mainly revolve around persuading big companies why they should part with their cash and invest it in the No.1 Olympic sport.
The quest for the perfect run, jump or throw
In the same way that surfers are forever in search of the perfect wave, track and field athletes are often willing to travel long distances in the hope of finding a dream location for a PB or record-breaking performance.
For years Rieti in Italy was the place to go for fast end-of-season performances in middle-distance races in particular. Both Seb Coe and Steve Ovett ran their best 1500m times there. David Rudisha ran a 1:41.01 world 800m record. Daniel Komen’s 3000m world record of 7:20.67 was set there. The list goes on. So much so that it developed a magical and almost preternatural reputation.
Lately the Boston University track in the United States has also become a mecca for endurance performances. But what about field eventers?
Step forward Ramona, a tiny town in Oklahoma not far from Tulsa.
For discus throwers it is a dream location – the surfing equivalent of Bells Beach in Australia – as the direction and strength of its winds are highly conducive to performances.
READ MORE: more AW blogs
This led to Mykolas Alekna improving his PB by more than three metres this weekend to break the oldest men’s world record in the books, while Yaime Perez threw the best women’s discus mark in the world since 1989.
Throwers will surely be queueing up to compete there next time.
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