Japan’s NTN Corporation Partners World Athletics 

Japan’s NTN Corporation (NTN) has tied up an official partnership deal with World Athletics. 

The collaboration began with the ongoing World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 in the Hungarian capital’s new National Athletics Centre. It features over 2000 athletes from all around the globe.  

Under the deal, which runs until the end of 2024, NTN has become the competition and presentation bib partner for the women’s events in Budapest, as well as for the World Road Running Championships Riga 23, and the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24.The agreement also includes backing all World Athletics Series events until the end of the tenure. 

Following the deal, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said, “I’m delighted to welcome NTN Corporation to our sport. Our Official Partners are key contributors to the staging of our World Athletics Series events, and there are none bigger than the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. We are always looking for partners who share our global vision and want to make the world a better place, and NTN certainly fits that bill. Gender equality is one of our key pillars so I’m particularly pleased to see that NTN will support our female competition programme through the bib sponsorship.”

NTN CEO Eiichi Ukai added, “Through its support for the world’s leading track and field events, NTN will encourage the world’s best athletes to strive for excellence, will promote the World Athletics Series events and the sport of athletics, and will contribute to positive international exchange between nations.”

According to ASN data, engineering companies have invested a figure of slightly over US$4.4m since Q420 in athletics sponsorship deals. Despite, Japan having the largest market share of 74.4% of this event, it has seen a recent spate of withdrawals from the likes of Kinden, Daido Steel and Aichi Steel for the Japanese leg of Ironman 70.3 and we hope the latest move from NTN sparks a revival in investment.