The USA Track and Field national governing body has signed a four-year partnership with the Penn Relays which will grant the US athletics showpiece enhanced media exposure.
The new contract between USATF and the world’s oldest and largest relay carnival will run through to the end of 2020 and comes ahead of the 123rd running of the Penn Relays from April 27-29 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
USATF has staged USA v The World, an international relay competition, at the Penn Relays annually since 2000. The new partnership will expand television coverage from the traditional USA v The World relay events on Saturday to include a live Friday-night show on US sports broadcaster NBC Sports Network.
USATF.tv also will stream a live global webcast of the Penn Relays during all three days of competition from 2017 through to 2020.
The additional Friday night television coverage in 2017 will air on April 28 from 5 to 6pm ET. The new show will be broadcast live from Franklin Field and will include highlights from Thursday and Friday’s races along with athlete interviews. Saturday’s television coverage will air nationally from 12:30pm to 3pm ET on NBCSN and will feature the USA v The World races, as well as top high school and collegiate relays.
USATF chief executive Max Siegel said: “By expanding our partnership, we will further elevate the profile of one of the world’s athletic events and expand the reach of our athletes and the sport worldwide.”