About Us

Nova International

Nova specialises in the development, design, organisation and rights management of mass participation, televised sporting events and is structured to deliver total event solutions from concept to implementation.

Great Run

Our current brand portfolio includes some of the biggest mass participation events in the world, all based on the original formula of the Bupa Great North Run – the UK's largest mass participation running event with 54,000 successful entrants selected from almost 100,000 annual applicants.

This is our exciting portfolio of events:

Bupa GreatRun Series

Number of Runners

Bupa Great Winter Run 3,000
Bupa Great Edinburgh Run 10,000
Bupa Great Manchester Run 34,000
Bupa Great North 10k 12,000
Bupa Great Capital Run 12,000
Bupa Great Yorkshire Run 8,000
Bupa Great North Run 54,000
Bupa Great South Run 22,000


International

Overseas, Nova stages the Great Ireland Run, with over 10,000 participants, the Great Australian Run in Melbourne and were the pioneers behind the Great Ethiopian Run, Africa’s biggest running event, which is staged annually in Addis Ababa.

Under 16s

The Bupa Great Junior and Mini programme is designed for children aged from three to 16-years-old and is staged in association with the senior Bupa Great Run programme.

Across the country over 15,000 children take part annually.

Nova has also created a national school-based activity campaign called the Tesco Great School Run, which links directly into the national curriculum and culminates in a mass participation run held simultaneously in schools across the UK on one special day.

The Tesco Great School Run involves over 3,000 schools and a million children.

Great Swim

A true mass participation swim open to all – elite swimmers head the race, with celebrities, club swimmers and fun swimmers following on behind in their waves.

Over 10,000 swimmers and 30,000 spectators took part in one of The Great Swim Events in 2009.

Channel 4 Coverage – 4 x 1 hour programmes

British Gas Great Swim Series

Number of Swimmers

British Gas Great London Swim 2,000
British Gas Great Scottish Swim 2,000
British Gas Great North Swim 7,000
British Gas Great East Swim 2,000


Future Development

Given the popularity of the current mass participation running programme, Nova is introducing a range of new challenges in 2010 involving:

These sports will be developed using the tried and tested GreatRun formula and offer the unique experience of elite athletes competing alongside the mass participation field.