Japanese watch manufacturer and timing specialist Seiko has extended its long-running top-tier partnership with athletics’ world governing body the IAAF for a further six years.
Seiko first partnered with the IAAF in 1985 ahead of its 1987 World Championships in Rome and the new deal will run from 2014 to 2019, covering the next three editions of that showpiece event in Beijing (2015), London (2017) and a yet-to-be-decided host in 2019.
Over the course of the fresh terms there will be 22 other IAAF events, including World Indoor, World Junior and World Youth Championships.
At all 25 events covered by the new deal, Seiko’s timing engineers will be on hand to install, operate and monitor its timing and measuring equipment. Each event team will feature a minimum of 50 engineers drawn from the company’s Japanese and UK bases.
Seiko will continue to work with the IAAF to drive technological innovation. In recent years it has developed a new false start detection system, LED-equipped field event boards and a video distance measurement system for jump events.
Seiko is one of seven top-tier IAAF partners alongside Adidas, Canon, Sinopec, TDK, Toyota and VTB.