BY ISSAH OLEGOR
Kenya has secured a landmark victory in the global sporting arena after Nairobi was selected to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, making the Kenyan capital the first African city to stage the senior global athletics showpiece.
Nairobi defeated bids from London, Rome and Munich following a World Athletics Council meeting in Budapest on Tuesday. Munich was subsequently awarded the 2031 edition, leaving the British and Italian capitals without the championships.
The decision represents a major breakthrough for African athletics. Since the World Athletics Championships were first staged in Helsinki in 1983, the senior competition has never been held on the continent, despite Africa producing generations of world-class athletes, particularly in middle- and long-distance running.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said Nairobi’s proposal provided the organisation with the opportunity it had been waiting for.
“Nairobi presented a compelling and emotional bid,” Coe said, explaining that the championships had been waiting for the “right host, the right bid and the right circumstances” before moving to Africa.
Kenya’s successful bid comes after an earlier failed attempt to host the 2025 edition, which was awarded to Tokyo. This time, Nairobi’s proposal drew on the city’s experience of staging major international competitions, including the 2017 World Under-18 Championships and the 2021 World Under-20 Championships.
The Kasarani Stadium will form the centrepiece of the 2029 event. The facility is already undergoing renovation ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, which Kenya will co-host with Tanzania and Uganda. Its subsequent use for the World Athletics Championships could allow Kenya to extract greater value from the investment being made in the stadium.
Nairobi’s success is particularly notable because it overcame a heavily supported London bid. The British capital reportedly had approximately £45 million in government and mayoral backing, along with an existing world-class stadium and extensive experience from hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2017 World Athletics Championships at Wembly Stadium.
London’s proposal also included a mass-participation marathon involving as many as 60,000 amateur runners. Rome and Munich similarly brought established sporting infrastructure and experience to the contest, but Nairobi ultimately offered World Athletics something the other bids could not—the chance to take its flagship championship to a continent that has never hosted it.
