NN Running Team to Conquer the World Athletics

Kenyan Elyud Kipchog, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele and Joshua Chiptiji crush challenges and records. They are the Athletics ‘Dream Team’ and are part of a team of twenty runners in its ranks, including Spain’s Wasim Amiz, that aims to beat the global “running”.

Founded on April 6, 2017 in the Netherlands, NN Running Team is the first professional athletics team in the world. The former Dutch sports team was founded by Jos Hermens and his company, Global Sports Communication, based in Nijmegen.

The NN Group, active in Spain as “Nationale-Nederlanden”, is the main sponsor of the team, with Nike being the other important partner.

“We are an active sponsor of athletics because we love to see the sport grow and we are grateful to be able to do so by sponsoring the team and some great events like San Silvestre, Vallecana and Marathon in Rotterdam. We believe that Remco Barbier, Grupo NN Brand Manager, said, For EFE, the success of NN Running athletes is also a great inspiration for other runners.

NN Running Team includes the world’s best long-distance runners such as Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya, Kenenisa Bekele from Ethiopia or Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda. The group was joined in 2021 by Wasim Omez, who considers the participation of a team with these sports figures as a “dream”.

Global Sports Communication, the largest international agency in the world of athletics, represents around 200 runners and is headquartered in Nijmegen, on the sports side, athlete selection, calendar setting and setting.

Jos Hermens, CEO and Founder of NN Running, Valentin Trouw, Director of Performance, and Marilyn Fink Reynings, Director of Marketing at Global Sports, lead a team that includes representatives from athletes, coaches, physical therapists, public relations, social and business media.

“The goal is to professionalize the sport in terms of performance and commitment. The team has managed to improve in terms of training, healthcare and nutrition, but also aims to provide access to the athletes’ stories and their amazing achievements. With this we try to inspire and motivate people around the world to achieve their goals and run The team’s fan base aims to be a community where people can follow the path of their heroes, ”Marilyn Fink Reynings admits.

From NN they do not want to determine the economic amount for this sporting project, although they assure that the return they receive with this sponsorship through setting up the team is enormous due to the international projection of its runners, who are present in all major areas. Events on the international calendar.

“For us, this sponsorship is interesting to get to know our customers better as well as for other prospects to know more about Nationale-Nederlanden. We hope they have more positive thoughts about NN when they see our brand in athletics or big marathons are the athletes.” Equipment, “says Barbier.

Athletes, outside of this multinational mechanism that includes the team, dedicate themselves to training in the various base camps that they have in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. The largest camp is located in Kaptagat (Kenya), and it is also where Eliud Kipchoge, the only athlete who trained less than two hours (1h59.40) in a marathon, is located in Vienna in 2019, although the brand was not compatible with You do not meet certain conditions required by the IAAF.

Another colleague of his, Joshua Cheptegei, broke the 10,000-meter world record in October 2020, in the so-called ‘NN Valencia World Record Day’, an event organized jointly by the NN Running Team and SD Correcaminos, organizer of the Valencia Marathon.

With a focus on long distance, NN sponsors several sporting events in Europe and Japan. Marathons but also beach races, night races of 15 kilometers and some of the 10 such as San Sylvester Vallecana, which before the coronavirus pandemic were bidding farewell in 2019 through the streets of Madrid with more than 40,000 participants.

Since the start of the team, NN Running Team athletes have achieved eleven victories in the so-called “Marathon Majors” (New York, London, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo and Boston), and they have set seven world records, and achieved many world titles in the road, track and cross-suburb and has won, Worldwide, with more than 175 asphalt races.

David Ramiro