IAAF and Seiko continue 25 year partnership for further four years – 2010 to 2013

The IAAF has announced the continuation of its partnership agreement with Seiko as a worldwide sponsor of the IAAF World Athletic Series of competitions. The renewal was brokered by Dentsu, the IAAF's worldwide marketing partner for the World Athletics Series, which includes the biennial IAAF World Championships in Athletics, the pinnacle of the sport's global competition programme.

The new agreement recognises Seiko as the Official Timer for the IAAF World Athletics Series, 2010 – 2013, with the company supplying its state-of-the-art timing and distance measurement services to nineteen events over the coming four years, including the thirteenth and fourteenth World Championships in Athletics, in Daegu, Korea (2011) and Moscow, Russia (2013) respectively. When the new contract begins in 2010, Seiko will have been in partnership with the IAAF for twenty-five years, having begun its continuous relationship with the world governing body of the sport at the 1985 World Indoor Games, the precursor of the World Indoor Championships. Seiko has now been the Official Timer at eleven consecutive World Championships, including Berlin 2009, and for over a hundred other IAAF competitions. IAAF President, Lamine Diack, said: "We are delighted to continue our long partnership with Seiko. Their technology and services have been vital to the success of our events for a quarter of a century and we look forward to another four years of great cooperation".     Lamine Diack (right), IAAF President and Mr. Shinji Hattori (left), Executive Vice-President of Seiko, pose after agreeing a four year sponsorship during the IAAF Congress Press Conference at the Estrel hotel on August 13th, 2009 in Berlin, Germany (Getty Images) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr Shinji Hattori, Executive Vice-President of Seiko Holdings Corporation, said: "We are honoured to be selected again by the IAAF for the next four years, and we will continue to repay the sport's trust in our timing technologies with new systems and services that help the future growth of the great sport of athletics".