The World Athletics Championships are heading to Africa for the first time as Kenya’s capital Nairobi was confirmed Tuesday as host of the 2029 edition of track and field’s premier event.
Kenya has long been a superpower in distance running and is second on the all-time worlds medal table behind only the United States. The championships return to Germany in 2031 after a 22-year wait, with Munich hosting.
“Taking our championships to Africa for the first time will be historic,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said as he announced the decision following the Ultimate Championship in Hungary. “Athletics is woven into the fabric of Kenya.”
Salim Mvurya, the Kenyan government minister responsible for sports, said “the world will come to a country where running is more than competition, it is our national story.”
Passionate Kenyan fans will get ‘their moment’
Coe added World Athletics research had shown Kenya was the most passionate market for track and field among those surveyed. The championships will use a stadium that’s already being upgraded for Kenya co-hosting soccer’s Africa Cup of Nations next year.
“It was important that the World Athletics 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,” Coe said.
The decision brings recognition of Kenya’s status as a track nation, but is likely to bring extra scrutiny of the East African nation’s history of top runners being busted for doping.
Marathon world record holder Ruth Chepng’etich is serving a three-year doping ban after joining the many elite-level Kenyan runners suspended over the past decade.
The 2031 championships could be a boost for Munich’s campaign to host the Olympics in future. It’s never hosted track worlds before, though Germany’s capital Berlin did in 2009 and Stuttgart hosted in 1993.
London was unsuccessful with a bid for 2029 after last hosting in 2017, while Rome was the other losing candidate.
More events than Ultimate Championship and many more athletes
After the new Ultimate Championship brought big cash prizes instead of medals for an invitation-only field of track’s biggest names, it’s back to the traditional worlds format next year in Beijing.
Next year’s world championships run for 10 days, against three for the new Ultimate Championship, with a full slate of events. That means including competitions like the men’s triple jump, shot put, walks and marathon which weren’t on the schedule in Budapest last week.
The Ultimate Championship doesn’t yet have a host confirmed for its next edition in 2028, but Coe said there was “a lot of interest” following the inaugural event.
“I think the proof of concept worked pretty well. There are things that we will obviously look at and adjust,” Coe said. “There’s already heightened interest in wanting to stage those championships.”
