Flight operator Wizz Air has been announced as the new title sponsor of the Cardiff Half Marathon taking over from Cardiff University. The university had held the 'title partner' position since 2016, and most recently sponsored the 2022 race held across the city over the weekend.
The airline takes over the sponsorship ahead of the opening of their new base at Cardiff Airport. You can read the latest on that here. The first Wizz Air Cardiff Half Marathon will take place on Sunday, October 2 2022. The race will be held just over six months after the most recent event after it was postponed due to the pandemic. You can follow our coverage from Sunday's event here.
The Cardiff Half returned to the Welsh capital on Sunday March 27 for the first time since 2019 as more than 25,000 people took part in the 18th edition of the event, which was originally scheduled for October 2020 before being delayed due to the Covid pandemic.
To celebrate the new partnership, event organisers R4W say they will be hiding colourful boxes around the city over the coming weeks showcasing the refreshed Wizz Air Cardiff Half brand. Those able to locate them will have the opportunity to win £200 Wizz Air flight vouchers. The boxes will be located around the iconic 13.1-mile route. You can keep up to date with news from across Cardiff by subscribing to our newsletter here.
Read more: Cardiff Half Marathon: The best pictures from the world-famous event over the years
Wizz Air already has partnerships with running events in European cities including Budapest, Skopje, Sofia, Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest and Kyiv. The airline will be offering flights from the Welsh capital to destinations including Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Palma, Sharm El Sheikh and Tenerife.
The Cardiff Half is the UK’s second-largest half marathon and Wales’ biggest mass participation event. It is also Wales’ largest multi-charity fundraising event, raising over £3million annually.
Wizz Air is the third brand to hold the title partner position of the Cardiff Half Marathon since R4W took ownership of the event from Barnardo’s in 2012. Cardiff University held the position between 2016 and 2022 whilst Lloyds Bank had a multi-year relationship with the event until 2015.
Matt Newman, Run 4 Wales chief executive, said: “The Cardiff Half Marathon has become a truly international event, and this is an exciting new chapter in our history.” Our new partnership with Wizz Air will help us to further expand the event, develop new experiences and innovations around the race and showcase Cardiff as one of Europe’s leading destinations for running tourism.”
“The legacy of hosting the World Half Marathon in 2016 has seen the event grow into one of Europe’s largest half marathons. Our new relationship with Wizz Air, inclusion in the newly launched SuperHalfs series and being awarded a World Athletics Elite Road Race Label demonstrates an exciting future for the race as it continues to attract runners from all over the world to Cardiff and Wales.”
Marion Geoffroy, UK managing director at Wizz Air, commented: “We are delighted to be the title sponsor for the Cardiff Half Marathon as it demonstrates our strong commitment to this exciting market. We hope this will be the start of a fantastic partnership for years to come.
“We also look forward to launching Wizz Air flights from Cardiff Airport in April and to providing low-fare connectivity to our customers in Wales and the surrounding region .”
Entries for the October event are now on sale at www.cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk, with a limited number of discounted early bird entries available. Runners keen to take part are encouraged to secure their space as soon as possible. All of the discounted early bird entries were snapped up in less than 24 hours ahead of the last edition of the race and all 27,500 available spaces sold out in less than 3 months.
