| ETHIOPIAN Sponsors The Great Run |
DATE: 1 July 2006
SOURCE: Press Release |
|
Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it will be the official airline sponsor for the 2006 TOYOTA Great Ethiopian Run which will take place in Addis Ababa on Sunday 26th November 2006. The sponsorship deal was struck following a meeting between Great Ethiopian Run Director Haile Gebrselassie and Ethiopian Chief Executive Officer Girma Wake.
After signing the agreement Haile expressed his delight about working with the national airline. “Ethiopian Airlines helped me as a young athlete before I came to Addis, and continues to support Ethiopia’s top runners. Just recently I did a TV commercial for Ethiopian which was a way of saying ‘thank you’ for all this help. I am very happy that Great Ethiopian Run will have the support of Ethiopian in its mission to promote our country to the outside world.”
Each year the race organizers invite a number of elite athletes from Kenya to participate in the race and as Ethiopian now flies daily between Addis and Nairobi there are other benefits to a sponsorship agreement with Ethiopian which has replaced British Airways as the airline sponsor.
“There was no question in our mind that we wanted to support this great race,” commented Tewolde G/Mariam, Executive Officer Marketing & Sales at Ethiopian. “We invest a lot of time and money in promoting tourism to Ethiopia and we see Great Ethiopian Run as our natural partners in this work
|
|
|
