Seiko - Partnership renewed with IAAF
In 1985, Seiko signed an agreement with the IAAF under which Seiko would provide timing services to the 1987 IAAF World Championships in Rome and several other events in the intervening period. Over the next 26 years, this agreement proved to have been the start of one of world sport's most enduring partnerships and, today, Seiko announces its renewal for a further six years, from 2014 to 2019.
The new agreement will include three IAAF World Championships, in Beijing in 2015, London in 2017 and in 2019 in a city yet to be decided. The agreement also covers 22 other events during the period, including the IAAF World Indoor Championships and the sport's major development events, the IAAF World Junior and IAAF World Youth Championships.
Seiko's timing, measuring and display systems are custom designed for athletics and are built specifically for the IAAF's events. As a result, they are at the leading edge of sports technology. Just in the last few years, Seiko has created a new false start detection system, new LED-equipped field event boards, and a video distance measurement system for long and triple jumps that has greatly improved the precision, verifiability and speed of the results. Over the new contract period, Seiko will introduce further innovations and refinements to its systems, ensuring that the IAAF's events will continue to be served by the most advanced and most reliable timing and measuring systems in the sporting world.
In signing the agreement, Shinji Hattori, Chairman and Group CEO of Seiko Holdings said, "We are delighted to renew our IAAF partnership for a further six years. This new long-term agreement allows us the time to work with the IAAF and plan new timing and measurement technologies that will really make a difference to the athletes, the officials and the spectators. Athletics is a great sport and we are proud to have supported its development over the past three decades. We look forward to its continued success in the coming years and will do all we can to help make this happen."
"I am delighted that the IAAF and Seiko have renewed their long standing partnership for a further six years. This announcement is a further endorsement that the global sport of Athletics remains extremely attractive to major corporations," confirmed IAAF President Lamine Diack.