Sport Industry Group

25 Nov 2011

Claire Furlong, Head of Marketing and Communications at UKA, recalls the National Governing Body’s 2011 Sport Industry Award for Sport Governing Body of the Year.

Winning the Sport Governing Body of the Year Award at the 2011 Sports Industry Awards was a great moment and enabled us to reflect on how far we had travelled in recent times in the pursuit of ensuring we are a governing body fit for purpose headed towards, and indeed beyond, 2012.

UK Athletics (UKA) has come a long way in the last four years. We are of course judged on the performance of our athletes and from that perspective things are very much on the up, with record medal hauls at both senior and junior levels over the last couple of years. But our transformation goes beyond the track; internally a strategic restructure has ensured our priorities are focused on making the most of the opportunities that come with a home Games as well as getting our sport into the best possible position to enjoy life post 2012. 

What is important to us about the Sport Industry Awards is the fact that it is judged by industry professionals who we hold in the highest regard. Our peers deemed us worthy of the title Sport Governing Body of the Year and that in itself shows how the perception of athletics has changed in a few short years. We targeted this recognition for post-2012 so for it to come in 2011 was a huge achievement for a sport that hadn’t been reaching its full potential.  

Our 2011 Sport Industry Awards award victory came off the back of a highly successful 2010 where we obtained a record number of medals at the European Championships in Barcelona, continued to deliver new and exciting communications strategies across a range of media, attracted record crowds to our events and continued to increase participation in our sport at grassroots level. 

Our submission for the 2010 award had led to a place on the shortlist and an appetite for more! With 2010 seeing UKA continuing to deliver further sponsorship and commercial success with CEO Niels de Vos at the helm, and our athletes showing even more year on year improvement in global performance standards under the guidance of Head Coach Charles van Commenee, and Coach Development enjoying a new lease of life under the leadership of Kevin Tyler, we were delighted to receive the recognition at the Sport Industry Awards earlier this year.

The Awards hold such significance across the industry, and like anyone involved in the delivery of sports related communications, the competitive spirit that engulfs our athletes can easily rub off a bit when you are with them. 

It is that spirit that came to the fore in our recent successful bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships. Led by UKA and in partnership with the government, Mayor of London, UK Sport and London & Partners the decision to host the world’s third largest sporting event in the Olympic Stadium was the culmination of a long campaign that now guarantees a long term Olympic legacy in London. 

We were delighted that the IAAF council recognised that London 2017 was the choice of athletes from around the world and could provide a backdrop for the Championships of a stadium full of passionate fans. It is victories like this and our Sport Industry Award for Sport Governing Body of the Year that give us pause for thought and allow us to reflect on our progress and take some pride in what we have achieved so far. The only question now is which other Sport Industry Awards do we enter this year?

By Claire Furlong, Head of Marketing and Communications at UKA

Entries to the Sport Industry Awards are open now. To enter, or for more information, click here.