Nairobi has been awarded the 2029 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first African city to host the senior global track and field championships since the event was launched in 1983. World Athletics announced the decision on Tuesday following its Council meeting in Budapest, alongside the selection of Munich as host of the 2031 edition.
The decision is more than a major sporting victory for Kenya. It represents a landmark moment for a continent whose athletes have been central to the history of distance running and whose contribution to athletics has long outstripped its share of the sport’s biggest hosting opportunities.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe described Nairobi’s proposal as a “compelling and emotional bid”, arguing that the championships should come to Africa when the right host, proposal and circumstances were in place.
βKenya is one of the great athletics nations. The sport is woven into the fabric of the country,β Coe said.
The 2029 championships are scheduled for September, following the 2027 edition in Beijing. Competition will be centred on the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, which is undergoing renovation ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
A championship finally comes to Africa
The significance of Nairobi’s selection is difficult to separate from Kenya’s extraordinary place in athletics.
For decades, Kenyan runners have dominated the middle- and long-distance events that form some of the sport’s most celebrated traditions. From Kip Keino and Paul Tergat to David Rudisha, Vivian Cheruiyot, Eliud Kipchoge, Hellen Obiri and Faith Kipyegon, Kenyan athletes have repeatedly defined generations of global competition. Coe specifically cited several of those athletes when explaining the importance of taking the championships to Nairobi.
Yet Africa had never hosted the senior World Athletics Championships.
That imbalance has been striking. The championships have travelled extensively across Europe, Asia and North America, while African cities have largely been spectators to the biggest global athletics spectacle despite producing many of its leading competitors.
Nairobi’s victory changes that.
It also gives the continent a chance to demonstrate that its role in international athletics is not limited to supplying elite athletes. Africa will now have the opportunity to host, organise and present the sport’s premier championship to a global audience.
Kenya’s athletics credentials were impossible to ignore
The decision comes at a time when Kenya’s position as an athletics powerhouse remains exceptionally strong.
At the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Kenya finished second on the medal table with 11 medals β seven gold, two silver and two bronze. It was the country’s best medal haul at a World Championships.
Faith Kipyegon again demonstrated why she has become one of the defining athletes of her generation, while Kenya’s depth extended across multiple events.
That success provides an important backdrop to Nairobi’s successful bid: the athletes who will compete in 2029 are likely to arrive in a country where athletics is not simply another sport, but part of the national identity.
And the relationship runs both ways.
A World Championships in Nairobi could give Kenyan athletes the rare experience of competing for global honours at home, while exposing young athletes across Africa to the world’s best competitors without requiring them to travel to Europe, Asia or the Americas.
Nairobi had already proved it could host global athletics
Nairobi’s selection was not based solely on Kenya’s reputation for producing champions.
The city has accumulated significant experience staging international athletics events.
It hosted the World Athletics Under-18 Championships in 2017 and the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in 2021. Kenya has also hosted the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa and the African Athletics Championships in Nairobi.
Those events helped give organisers experience with international athletes, officials, broadcasters and spectators.
The Kasarani complex is now being upgraded, with its redevelopment linked to Kenya’s preparations for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations. That work is expected to leave Nairobi with an improved central venue ahead of the 2029 championships.
For World Athletics, that existing experience and infrastructure appears to have strengthened the case that Nairobi could deliver an event of the scale required.
The road to 2029 was not straightforward
Kenya previously sought to host the 2025 World Athletics Championships, but Tokyo was ultimately awarded the event. The Nairobi bid team returned to the contest with a new proposal for 2029, this time facing bids from London, Rome and Munich.
The bidding process formally opened in 2025. World Athletics set September 2026 as the point at which the 2029 and 2031 hosts would be selected.
Nairobi’s eventual triumph over major European cities therefore represents a considerable vote of confidence in Kenya’s ability to stage an event of global importance.
London, in particular, had presented a powerful case built around the city’s extensive experience hosting major athletics events. But World Athletics ultimately chose Nairobi for 2029 and Munich for 2031.
Kenya’s athletics reputation has been accompanied by persistent concerns about doping. The country has faced a substantial number of anti-doping cases in recent years, creating an integrity challenge that will remain relevant as Nairobi prepares to welcome the world’s best athletes. Reuters has previously reported that Kenya accounted for more than a third of Athletics Integrity Unit bans issued since 2017.
A successful 2029 championship will need to demonstrate not only that Kenya can produce world-class performances, but that those performances take place within a rigorous and credible anti-doping system.
World Athletics has nonetheless judged the wider bid strong enough to entrust Nairobi with its flagship event. The decision places an additional responsibility on Kenyan authorities and athletics administrators to ensure that the country’s anti-doping reforms keep pace with the expectations attached to hosting a global championship.
More than a sporting event
For Nairobi, the championships could also become an economic and tourism opportunity.
Thousands of athletes, coaches, officials, journalists, volunteers and supporters are expected to converge on the Kenyan capital. The event will put Nairobi’s hotels, transport network, restaurants, security services and tourism attractions before a worldwide audience.
But the longer-term impact could be even more important.
Major sporting events can leave behind renovated facilities, improved event-management expertise, stronger tourism infrastructure and a generation of volunteers and young athletes who gain direct exposure to international competition.
For Kenya, the hope will be to avoid the familiar problem of expensive sporting infrastructure becoming underused once the cameras leave.
The challenge, therefore, is to make Kasarani and the wider investment in Nairobi’s sporting infrastructure useful long after the final medals have been awarded.
A new chapter for World Athletics
The decision also fits into a broader effort by World Athletics to expand the sport’s global footprint and modernise its presentation.
The championships will next go to Beijing in 2027, before moving to Nairobi in 2029 and Munich in 2031. Both the Nairobi and Munich editions are scheduled for September, continuing the recent positioning of the championships as the climax of the outdoor athletics season.
The choice of Nairobi signals that the world’s governing body believes the future of athletics cannot be confined to its traditional strongholds.
Africa is both a source of elite talent and one of the world’s fastest-growing sports markets. Bringing the championship to the continent gives World Athletics an opportunity to deepen that relationship.
