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Nairobi will host the World Athletics Championships in 2029 after beating bids from London, Munich and Rome, World Athletics has announced.
The decision makes Kenya the first African country to host the global track and field championships. Munich, Germany, will host the 2031 edition, while Beijing is already scheduled to stage the 2027 championships.
The decisions were announced after a World Athletics Council meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which hosted the recently concluded Ultimate Championships.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the organisation received four strong bids for the 2029 and 2031 championships before the council made its decision.
“We were fortunate to have four outstanding bids for 2029 and 2031, and this was not an easy decision for the council,” Coe told a news conference.
He said the three upcoming editions would take the championships across Asia, Africa and Europe. “Taking our championships to Africa for the first time will be historic. Nairobi has presented a compelling and emotional bid,” he said.
Coe said Nairobi had demonstrated that the city was ready to use the championships to accelerate the development of athletics in Kenya and across the continent.
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“It was important that the World Championships should come to Africa when we had the right host, the right bid, and the right circumstances,” he said.
“Nairobi has demonstrated emphatically that this is their moment to supercharge the development of our sport in Kenya and across Africa, leaving a compelling legacy that inspires a continent.”
Nairobi strengthens its international athletics record Kenya previously bid unsuccessfully to host the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
However, the country has a strong record of staging international athletics events, including the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, the 2017 World Under-18 Championships and the 2021 World Under-20 Championships, both in Nairobi. The Kenyan capital also hosted the 2010 African Athletics Championships.
Coe said Nairobi’s experience from its unsuccessful 2025 bid helped strengthen its latest proposal. “Having also been part of the bidding process for 2025, the [Nairobi] team understood and grasped what was required and came back with a stronger proposition and a renovated Kasarani Stadium,” he said.
Kasarani Stadium is currently undergoing a major overhaul ahead of its planned role in hosting the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON.
The 2029 World Athletics Championships will therefore mark a significant milestone for African athletics, bringing the sport’s premier global outdoor championship to the continent for the first time.
Al Jazeera
