Nairobi will host the 2029 World Athletics Championships after World Athletics selected the Kenyan capital following a competitive bidding process that also involved London and other strong candidates.
The decision, announced after the World Athletics Council meeting in Budapest, will make Nairobi the first African city to host the World Athletics Championships, giving the continent its first opportunity to stage athletics’ flagship global event.
But what made Nairobi’s bid stand out?
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said the decision followed an assessment of the quality, ambition and commitment demonstrated by the competing candidates.
“Nairobi ultimately presented a compelling and emotional bid,” Coe said, describing the decision to take the championships to Africa as historic.
A city with proven athletics experience
One of Nairobi’s strongest advantages was its experience hosting major international athletics competitions.
The capital staged the World Athletics Under-18 Championships in 2017 and the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in 2021. It also hosts the Kip Keino Classic, which has been part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold since 2020.
That history gave World Athletics evidence of Nairobi’s ability to organise international competitions and attract large crowds.
The 2017 World U18 Championships, in particular, demonstrated the strength of Kenya’s athletics following, with Kasarani Stadium drawing substantial crowds throughout the competition.
Nairobi had also previously bid for the 2025 World Championships, although Tokyo eventually won that competition.
Rather than abandoning its ambition, Nairobi returned with a revised and more developed proposal for 2029.
Kenya’s extraordinary appetite for athletics
The country’s relationship with athletics was another major factor.
World Athletics fan research found that 68 per cent of Kenyans surveyed had a high interest in athletics, compared with a global average of 39 per cent.
The organisation also said Kenya had the highest net promoter score among the markets surveyed, while athletics was the country’s second-most-followed sport after football.
That creates a potentially powerful environment for a championship expected to bring the world’s leading track and field athletes to Nairobi.
Kenya’s record on the track strengthened the case further.
The country is the second-most successful nation in World Athletics Championships history and won 11 medals, including seven gold, at the 2025 championships in Tokyo.
Stadium upgrades strengthened Nairobi’s case
Infrastructure was another important part of Nairobi’s proposition.
Kasarani Stadium, expected to serve as the main competition venue, is undergoing a major renovation ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
That means the facility is expected to have undergone substantial improvements before the 2029 championships arrive.
World Athletics said Nairobi’s bid combined operational planning and financial guarantees with the renovated Kasarani Stadium and a wider vision for bringing the championships to Africa for the first time.
The timing also gives Kenya two years between AFCON 2027 and the 2029 championships to build on the infrastructure and organisational experience gained from hosting major international events.
The Africa factor
Perhaps the biggest difference was the opportunity Nairobi offered World Athletics itself.
The 2029 championships will be the first edition held in Africa.
Coe said World Athletics wanted its flagship event to expand its global reach, with the next three editions taking place across Asia, Africa and Europe — Beijing in 2027, Nairobi in 2029 and Munich in 2031.
“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,” Coe said. “Nairobi has demonstrated emphatically that this is their moment.”
For Nairobi, therefore, the successful bid was not based on one factor alone.
It brought together a proven athletics culture, previous hosting experience, strong fan interest, improving infrastructure, financial and operational commitments and the opportunity to take the world’s biggest athletics championship to a new continent.
The choice also gives Kenya three years to prepare for an event that will place Nairobi’s sporting facilities, logistics and organisational capacity under the world’s spotlight.
