Africa will finally get its moment on athletics’ biggest stage.
Nairobi has been awarded the 2029 World Athletics Championships, marking the first time the senior global outdoor championships will be staged on African soil. The landmark decision goes beyond choosing a host city. It represents a major step in athletics’ push to become a truly global sport and gives Kenya, one of the world’s great running nations, the chance to showcase its passion for track and field to a worldwide audience.
The World Athletics Council voted in Budapest to award the 2029 championships to Nairobi and the 2031 edition to Munich. They were selected from four bids, with London and Rome also competing to host the championships.
Nairobi Makes Athletics History
World Athletics President Seb Coe described the decisions as part of the sport’s broader mission to expand its global footprint.
“With this Council decision today, we continue to fulfil our mission of growing athletics worldwide,” Coe said, pointing to a sequence of championships across Asia, Africa and Europe.
He said Nairobi and Munich had presented “two compelling propositions” and offered “very different but equally exciting opportunities” for the sport.
For Nairobi, the announcement is particularly significant.
Kenya has long been synonymous with distance running. The country has produced generations of Olympic and world champions, but it has never hosted the senior World Athletics Championships.
That will change in 2029, when the world’s best athletes descend on the Kenyan capital.
Kasarani Stadium Gets Major Upgrade
Nairobi’s bid for the 2025 World Championships ultimately lost out to Tokyo, with infrastructure regarded as one of the weaknesses of the Kenyan proposal.
Since then, however, the city’s prospects have strengthened considerably.
The 48,000-capacity Kasarani Stadium is undergoing a major structural renovation ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, which Kenya will co-host with Tanzania and Uganda.
The upgraded venue is expected to provide a stronger foundation for Nairobi’s first senior World Championships.
The city also has recent experience of hosting major international athletics events. Kasarani staged the 2017 World Athletics Under-18 Championships, which attracted packed crowds, as well as the 2021 World Athletics Under-20 Championships.
Kenya Has a Passionate Athletics Audience
Perhaps most importantly, Nairobi already has an audience deeply invested in the sport.
World Athletics fan research found that 68% of Kenyans surveyed rated their interest in track and field as high. The global average was 39%.
That made Kenya the most athletics-interested market measured in the research.
That passion could make Nairobi 2029 unlike any previous World Championships.
A Major Championship Run for Athletics
The Nairobi announcement comes as part of a significant run of major championships for athletics.
Beijing will host the next World Championships from September 10-19, 2027. Track and field will then take centre stage at the Los Angeles Olympics from July 15-30, 2028.
A World Ultimate Championships will also be held in 2028 after the Games, bringing the season to a major global conclusion.
World Athletics is also seeking to establish a clearer rhythm in which the outdoor season finishes with a major championship. Nairobi in 2029 and Munich in 2031 are both scheduled for September.
Munich to Bring World Championships Back to Germany
The choice of Munich provides another compelling story.
Germany will host the World Championships for the first time since Berlin staged the event in 2009. Twenty-two years after that championship, the global athletics community will return to Germany, this time to Munich and its iconic Olympic Stadium.
The venue has already demonstrated its ability to create an atmosphere worthy of a major athletics championship.
During the 2022 European Championships, the stadium attracted an estimated 267,000 track and field fans, providing a powerful indication of the appetite for athletics in the city.
Asia, Africa and Europe in Focus
Together, Nairobi and Munich give World Athletics two very different hosts, but also two cities with strong sporting identities.
Nairobi offers the historic first: Africa finally hosting the senior World Championships, in a country where athletics is embedded in the national sporting culture.
Munich offers a return to a proven European market and a stadium steeped in Olympic history.
The decisions also underline the changing geography of global athletics.
Beijing, Nairobi and Munich will host the next three editions of the World Championships, taking the event to Asia, Africa and Europe.
For a sport that has traditionally relied heavily on a handful of established markets, that geographical spread is significant.
Kenya Finally Gets to Host the Show
For Kenya, however, the significance is even greater.
The country has spent decades producing athletes who have conquered the biggest stadiums in the world.
In 2029, the world’s biggest athletics championship will finally come to them.
Africa is no longer simply producing the stars of athletics.
It is getting to host the show.