Brendan Foster Backs Birmingham 2022
Brendan Foster CBE has been announced as the latest addition to the Birmingham 2022 Bid team.
As an Olympic bronze medallist and Commonwealth Champion, in the 10,000m in Edmonton, Foster brings insight from an elite athlete’s perspective, as well as sports business expertise gained from founding and managing the mass-participation sports event company, Great Run.
Foster and Great Run have been responsible for the Great Birmingham Run, Great Birmingham 10k and this autumn’s inaugural Birmingham International Marathon.
Foster will shortly be hanging up the microphone as part of his role on the BBC Sport commentary team, with this summer’s London 2017 IAAF World Championship marking his last major athletics event.
Foster said: “When Ian Ward invited me to join the Birmingham 2022 Bid team I was delighted to accept.
“Birmingham is an ambitious, vibrant city with a great sporting heritage and I believe the ideal location to host such a prestigious global event.
“Our company has a strong relationship with Birmingham through organising Great Run events in recent years and in October we’ll be staging the first marathon in the city for 28 years.”
Ian Ward, deputy leader, Birmingham City Council and chair, Birmingham Commonwealth Games Steering Group, said: “We are thrilled that Brendan is joining our team to help secure the Commonwealth Games for Birmingham.
“His knowledge, both as a former athlete and as a business professional, will be a boost to our efforts. In recent years, with the Great Birmingham Run and the forthcoming Birmingham International Marathon in October, we have worked closely with Brendan and his team and have seen them deliver some outstanding events for the city.
“We have a strong team working hard to bring the Games to Birmingham. With 95% of our venues already available, combined with our expertise at delivering world class sporting events, and our position as heart of the UK, soul of the Commonwealth, we are in a good position. The more support we can get the better.”
Birmingham’s bid has the full support of: Birmingham City Council; three regional local enterprise partnerships: Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP; Black Country LEP; Coventry and Warwickshire LEP; the West Midlands Combined Authority and the newly elected Mayor of West Midlands, Andy Street; the West Midlands Growth Company; and the Midlands Engine.
