Countdown
Toyota will be seeking to assert their philosophy for a safer, cleaner and better IAAF World Championships London 2017 when the ten-day festival of athletics bursts out of the starting blocks on Friday (Aug 4).
The global company has been a long-standing partner to the IAAF World Championships, proudly supporting the event since the third edition of the biennial event memorably staged in Tokyo in 1991.
For the past 26 years Toyota has maintained a clear presence in the flagship event, which has provided many of the sport’s iconic moments and is beamed into billions of homes around the planet.
Toyota is excited by the prospect of maintaining their involvement in London and are relishing playing its part in a keenly anticipated event, which will bring the curtain down on the incomparable career of Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt.
“The biggest sporting event of the year is happening in London this summer and we’re very proud to be an Official IAAF Partner,” said Andrew Cullis, Toyota GB Marketing Director.
“We’re helping the IAAF World Championships be safer, greener and go better. Like the athletes themselves, we rely on innovation to help keep us out in front, so we’ll be doing our best to support the championships in every way we can.”
At the very heart of Toyota’s involvement in the 16th edition of the IAAF World Championships, which will be staged at the 60,000 capacity London Stadium, will be the provision of 132 largely petrol-electric hybrid vehicles, with drivers, to take athletes wherever they need to be during their time at the championships. The quiet and efficient hybrid technology will mean lower emissions and fuel use, particularly in slow-moving traffic where the vehicles have the potential to run emissions-free on their electric power alone.
Hydrogen fuel cell-powered pace vehicles
The Toyota Mirai, the company’s first production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, will lead the competitors in the men’s and women’s marathons and race walks as the official timing car. Powered by Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell system, the car will produce no harmful emissions – in fact the only emission will be pure water, a by-product of the fuel cell’s power generation process.
Fully committed to providing a greener approach Andrew Cullis says of the timing cars: “These won’t run on petrol or diesel this year, they’ll run on hydrogen and emit nothing but H2O. Because of the Toyota Mirai’s hydrogen fuel cell the only thing the athletes will be inhaling running behind the car for 26 miles will be water!”
As part of Toyota’s commitment to furthering investment in and support for women in sport, it is once again sponsoring the bibs worn by all the female competitors during the IAAF World Championships. The initiative, which first started at the 2003 IAAF World Championships in Paris, has seen the brand visible on the bibs of the likes of world-class stars such as Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic, Australian sprint hurdler Sally Pearson, American sprint ace Allyson Felix, Ethiopian distance runner Almaz Ayana, Colombian triple jumper Caterine Ibarguen and Chinese discus thrower Li Yangfeng, who have all climbed the top of the World Championship podium with a series of impressive performances. Toyota will also be providing a cash prize fund that will reward any woman who breaks a world record during the championships.
Steve Landells for the IAAF
