Lamine Diack and Tadashi Arashima of Toyota (© Getty Images)
MonacoDuring a special ceremony last night, the IAAF formally signed a Partnership agreement with the Toyota Motor Corporation for the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics and received the keys to the Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle, which will serve as the lead car in the Marathon races in Paris. Among the VIPs present at the Toyota Showroom on Paris’ Champs Elysees was France’s Eunice Barber, the 1999 World Champion at the Heptathlon.
President Diack expressed his “pride and pleasure” that the IAAF was entering into this new partnership. “By hard work and innovation, Toyota has developed, over many decades, a well deserved reputation as one of the world leaders of the automobile industry,” said Diack. “In a similar way, our sport has grown in status over the years, based on the never ending quest to improve which motivates the IAAF, as well as every athlete.”
Toyota will provide a wide range of official cars, which will be used for a variety of purposes including transporting athletes and officials at the World Championships. The second generation of the world’s first mass produced hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius, which celebrated its world premiere at the New York International Automobile Show in April, will make its maiden European trip as the lead vehicle for the men and women’s marathons. Toyota plans to provide a total of 200 vehicles, including the all-new Toyota Avensis, as well as the Toyota Corolla and Yaris.
Toyota, as an official partner, will also have the opportunity to put its company name and logo on the bibs worn by the competitors in all of the women’s events. On top of the official partnership agreement, Toyota is also lending support to the World Record Programme, by which any woman breaking a world record in Paris receives an award of $100,000.
