Nairobi selected for 2029 World Athletics Championships, first African host

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe announced on September 15 that Nairobi will host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first African city to stage the global track and field event. Munich was awarded the 2031 championships. London and Rome's bids were rejected.

The decision reshapes how major athletics competitions are distributed globally. Europe will host only one World Athletics Championships between 2017 and 2031, with Budapest staging the event in 2023. London was seen widely as the frontrunner for 2029 and had committed 45 million pounds, made up of 35 million from the government and 10 million from the mayor's office, according to the Guardian.

Nairobi's Kasarani Stadium is undergoing renovation ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027, which the BBC reported strengthened its case as a host venue. Kenya finished second in the medal table at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, winning seven gold medals and 11 in total, per BBC reporting. Nairobi had previously submitted a bid for the 2025 championships but missed out to Tokyo.

Coe framed the decision around competitive growth and financial sustainability. "Yes, of course, we see the historical, groundbreaking nature of taking the World Athletics Championships to Africa, but that alone is not the basis upon the decision," Coe said, according to the Guardian. "It was made across budgets, it was made across financial government guarantees, it was made across the growth potential of the sport. It was also grounded in some really serious analysis."

World Athletics addressed Kenya's doping history by pointing to government commitments. According to the Guardian, a World Athletics spokesperson said the Kenyan government committed $5 million annually to anti-doping efforts. However, 318 elite Kenyan athletes have been banned for violating anti-doping rules since the Athletics Integrity Unit was established in 2017, per the Guardian. The spokesperson defended the decision, arguing Kenya is "much improved" and hosting could act as a "catalyst" for the government's anti-doping efforts.

UK Athletics chief executive Jack Buckner said, according to the Guardian: "We are deeply disappointed. We believed we had an outstanding bid which would genuinely take the sport to new levels." The BBC noted that uncertainty over whether West Ham would grant permission for the London Stadium was only confirmed last month, shortly before the bid had to be formally submitted. Nearly 10,000 seats sat empty at Birmingham's 23,000-seater Alexander Stadium during the European Athletics Championships last month, the BBC reported.

Coe rejected criticism that the decision favored historical symbolism over merit. "We were fortunate to have four outstanding bids for 2029 and 2031, and this was not an easy decision for the council," he said, per the BBC. He added that World Athletics has "a responsibility to make sure that an international governing federation made up of well over 200 federations has the opportunity to be able to take our championships into areas that strategically we think will actually grow the footprint of our sport," according to the BBC.