The World Athletics (WA) governing body has today announced a new three-year sponsorship agreement with Japanese technology and media conglomerate Sony.
The deal, which runs from 2024 to 2026, will see Sony support all World Athletics Series events starting from the upcoming WA Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March. The partnership also includes the WA Championships in Tokyo, Japan in September 2025.
As part of the partnership, Sony said it will work with creators and “leverage the power of technology” to generate “emotion-filled experiences” for sports fans and capture them on film and photographs.
Additionally, Sony will provide its Hawk-Eye Innovation technology and cameras at the events to support officials.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said: “We are entering an exciting few years for our sport and I can think of no better partner than Sony to help us capture the excitement, the thrill, and the breathtaking performances our sport promises to bring.
“We look forward to the outstanding photographs Sony will capture at our events to immortalize these many moments in our sport’s history.”
Other major WA sponsors include professional services firm Deloitte and Japanese manufacturing heavyweight NTN.
Hiroki Totoki, president of Sony Group Corporation, added: “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with World Athletics to sponsor their World Athletics Series events, which are known as the world's top competitions in athletics.”
The deal comes as WA prepares to stage its Indoor Championships in Glasgow, which will receive worldwide coverage through a media rights deal with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) renewed in 2021.
Starting this year and running until 2029, the new agreement covers European and African rights on all existing and non-existing platforms, via all distribution modes, as well as non-exclusive radio rights. The latest renewal marks a 40-year partnership between World Athletics and the EBU
Infront, the international sports marketing agency, is the international media rights distributor for the WA Indoor Tour under a six-year partnership renewed with WA last year.
