McCain Foods has decided not to renew its sponsorship deal with UK Athletics (UKA), the governing body for the sport in the country.
The GBP5m (US$7.7m) partnership, signed in 2008, was made to provide funding to support and develop 150,000 competitors at local athletics clubs and sponsor UK competitions.
The deal ends in June 2013 and Bill Bartlett, McCain corporate affairs director, said the decision not to renew was made after “careful consideration”.
“The partnership continues to be hugely successful for McCain and UKA in creating a long term legacy for young British athletes from a grass roots through to competitive level,” he said.
“When we embarked on the partnership we set clear objectives to make athletics in the UK inclusive for all and we are happy to say that through the partnership we have supported the development of the domestic competition structure, enabled many thousands of youngsters to try out athletics for the first time, created a talent identification programme and communicated to families the importance of getting more active more often. We are very much focusing on continuing this good work for the next 18 months.”
UK Athletics did not wish to comment.

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