World Athletics Championships 2029: Kenyan capital Nairobi wins bid to host event in African first

Kenya to host 2029 World Athletics Championships in African first

Kenya will become the first African country to host the World Athletics Championships after winning the bid for the 2029 edition.

The capital Nairobi will hold the event at the 48,000-capacity Kasarani Stadium.

London and Rome were the cities to miss out, with Munich awarded hosting rights in 2031.

Kenya's rich athletics heritage was central to its bid for 2029, with the East African nation boasting 72 World Championship and 38 Olympic gold medals, predominantly in middle- and long-distance running.

It is the second-most successful nation in the history of the World Championships, and two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, who also won 5000m gold at the 2003 World Championships, was among those who made the case for Nairobi during the bid process.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe described that bid as "compelling and emotional".

"Kenya is one of the great athletics nations," Coe added.

"The sport is woven into the fabric of the country.

"It was important that the World Championships should come to Africa when we had the right host, the right bid and the right circumstances. Nairobi has demonstrated emphatically that this is their moment."

The decision to award the event to Nairobi is historic for Africa, with the continent having never hosted the senior World Championships despite producing some of the sport's biggest stars.

Kenya's bid also highlighted its experience of hosting major athletics events, including the 2017 World Under-18 and 2021 World U20 Championships in Nairobi and the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa.

Kenya previously bid to stage the 2025 World Championships but lost out to Tokyo, with infrastructure a key weakness.

This time, the country pointed to upgrades to existing facilities as evidence of its readiness.

Kenya has been renovating its stadiums ahead of co-hosting next year's Africa Cup of Nations alongside Tanzania and Uganda.

Kasarani Stadium is undergoing a complete structural overhaul in the build-up to hosting games at the continent's biggest football tournament.