The Running Industry Awards have been officially launched for 2025 as a partnership between Running Industry Alliance (RIA), RunEvents and England Athletics.
The Running Industry Awards are running business- and brand-focused awards voted for by consumers, with category nominations, voting and attendance open to Running Industry Alliance (RIA) and Triathlon Industry Association (TIA) members, as well as non-members.
The awards concept was originally unveiled at The Running Conference presented by haku in December.
RIA RunEvents and England Athletics will celebrate work done across six defined categories of: events, communities, brands, retail, charity and media.
The awards launch evening in December kicked off with four event orientated award trophies handed out on the night, with Scimitar as the events category partner:
- The first award was focused around service to the industry, announced by Barry Hopkins and presented by Andy Anstey to Tom Kerry.
- The second award for pioneering work was announced by Catherine Cowie and presented by Chris Jones to SheRACES – with founder Sophie Power collecting the award.
- The third award for innovation was announced by Barry Hopkins and presented to Friday Night Lights (FNL), and collected by founder Charlie Allen.
- The fourth and final award of the night for recognition was announced by Rebecca Richardson and presented by Adam Yeomans to parkrun coinciding with its 20th anniversary celebration, with Russ Jefferys collecting the award.
The four elements of service, innovation, recognition and pioneering work will continue into 2025 for each awards category.
In the 2025 awards categories, ASICS was announced as category partner for community, Scimitar as category partner for events and the Triathlon Industry Association (TIA) as category partner for triathlon. Further category partners will be announced over the coming months.
Furthermore, njuko and givestar were unveiled as founding partners, with Sonja Bertok from njuko and Simon Klima from givestar present to support the launch of the Running Industry Awards.
Anchoring the Running Industry Awards is a focus on giving-back. As part of the awards’ partnership with RunEvents and England Athletics a £5,000 donation has been made to the Young Leaders Fund managed by the Personal Best Foundation by the partners involved.
This donation kickstarts the fund, with RIA members and partners invited to support this initiative set to empower young people from underserved communities and aiming to open up careers opportunities in sport and physical activity.
Further details about the awards categories, nominations, voting and tickets will be announced in spring 2025.
www.therunningconference.com
www.runningindustryalliance.com
www.englandathletics.org/runevents
www.personalbestfoundation.org.uk/youngleadersfund
