Podium Festival offering £30,000 prize fund for event in Leicester

The inaugural meet on March 16 is backed by SportsShoes.com and will involve attempts to break both British and European 5km records

Plans have been announced for the inaugural SportsShoes.com Podium Festival, a community running and brand exhibition event which will be held on March 16, 2024.

Taking place at New College Leicester, there will be roughly 1,000 runners alongside 2,000 spectators attending, making it the largest SportsShoes.com Podium event organised to date.

It will involve more than eight hours of racing, ranging in format and distance over the course of the day. The total prize fund will be an incredible £30,000.

SportsShoes.com Podium Festival has been set up to cater for athletes of all abilities, ranging from junior levels to Olympians.

There will also be attempts to break both the British and European 5km records in both the elite male and female races.

Sam Atkin and Eilish McColgan are the current official British 5km record-holders with 13:16 and 14:45, while Jimmy Gressier and Sifan Hassan have the European records of 13:12 and 14:38.

The event will have an exclusive brand village which will house Adidas, Puma, Asics, Under Armour, Hoka, Garmin, Saucony, New Balance, On running and Salomon, believed to be the first of its kind at any community racing event.

The village provides brands with the opportunity to showcase their products and will serve as a platform for new product and community activations, as well as featuring their run crews and brand ambassadors.

Alongside the racing and brand village, additional entertainment at the event will include 10 hours of DJs, bands and live entertainment.

It’s the latest innovative event created by Podium 5K, enabling further record attempts and the diversification of running events.

Dan Cartner, Head of Marketing at SportsShoes.com, said: “Since Podium 5K was founded, it has set a new standard for community running events. Now, with the inaugural SportsShoes.com Podium Festival, we are taking it to the next level.

“This will be something the running community has never seen before with the fastest runners competing for the biggest prize pot ever seen in a domestic running event.

“It’s great to also welcome our brand partners to exhibit in our first-ever brand village to showcase their latest product activations to event attendees.

“The event will truly be an unmissable opportunity and is another example of us breaking the mould for our brand partners and the athlete community.”

Since its launch, Podium 5K has organised more than 45 non-profit races for affiliated and non-affiliated athletes expanded to include events in London, the Midlands and Wales.

Sportsshoes.com Podium Festival race manager, Chris Barnes, said: “It’s a very exciting prospect to have all the brands come together for one big event.

“We look forward to welcoming them to SportsShoes.com Podium Festival and hope to see some record-breaking race action across the day from the runners taking part.”

Bradford-headquartered SportsShoes.com was established in 1982 and offers customers more than 17,000 products from 150 global running and outdoor brands.

For further information on SportsShoes.com Podium Festival, click here

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