Kenya will host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, bringing the sport’s flagship competition to Africa for the first time after Nairobi beat bids from London and Rome.
The championships will take place at the capital’s 48,000-capacity Kasarani Stadium. Munich was awarded the 2031 edition.
The decision marks a milestone for a continent that has produced many of athletics’ leading competitors but has never staged the senior world championships.
Kenya made its sporting record a central part of its bid. The country has won 72 world championship gold medals and 38 Olympic golds, largely in middle- and long-distance running, and ranks second in the world championships’ all-time standings.
Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, who also won the world 5,000 metres title in 2003, helped promote Nairobi’s candidacy.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe praised the strength of Kenya’s proposal and its deep connection to the sport, saying Nairobi had demonstrated its readiness to host.
Kenya also drew on its experience of organising international competitions. Nairobi hosted the World Under-18 Championships in 2017 and the World Under-20 Championships in 2021, while Mombasa staged the World Cross Country Championships in 2007.
An earlier Kenyan bid for the 2025 championships lost to Tokyo, with infrastructure identified as a major weakness.
For the 2029 bid, Kenya highlighted improvements to existing facilities as evidence that it could meet the demands of the event.
The country is renovating stadiums ahead of jointly hosting the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations with Tanzania and Uganda. Kasarani is undergoing a major structural overhaul ahead of the football tournament.
