British track and field athletes will need to sign performance-based contracts in order to get funding under a new sponsorship agreement aimed at producing champions for the 2012 London Olympics.
The five-year, 50-million-pound (US$87.5 million; euro71.4 million) deal announced Wednesday with insurance company Norwich Union is the biggest sponsorship deal in British sport outside soccer.
It comes after a poor showing by British athletes, particularly sprinters, at the Commonwealth Games last month in Melbourne, Australia.
Leading athletes will need to sign central contracts where funding could be withdrawn if performance targets aren’t met.
“It’s important for us all to know exactly where we stand and what is expected of us,” said Kelly Sotherton, who won Olympic bronze in the hepathlon at the 2004 Athens Olympics and gold at the Commonwealth Games. “The sport is accountable for our performances and it’s only right that we should also be individually accountable too.”
The new agreement starts Jan. 1, 2007, and runs through the end of 2012.
Norwich Union has been a sponsor of UK Athletics since 1999.
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