Nairobi has been awarded the 2029 World Athletics Championships, beating bids from London and Rome to bring the sport’s flagship global outdoor event to Africa for the first time. World Athletics announced the decision on September 15 following a council meeting in Budapest, with Munich selected to host the 2031 championships.
The Nairobi edition will make Kenya the first African country to stage the senior World Athletics Championships. The decision reflects Kenya’s exceptional connection with athletics. World Athletics said Kenya recorded the highest level of interest in the sport among markets included in its research, with 68% of Kenyans rating their interest in athletics, compared with 39% globally.
Kenya also recorded the highest Net Promoter Score in the research and ranks fourth among countries by followers across World Athletics’ social media channels. Nairobi has also built experience hosting major international athletics events.
The city staged the World U18 Championships in 2017 and World U20 Championships in 2021, while the annual Kip Keino Classic has established Nairobi as a regular stop on the international athletics calendar. Kasarani, the proposed main venue, is undergoing major renovation ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2029 championships.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe described Nairobi’s bid as “compelling and emotional”, arguing that Kenya’s contribution to athletics and the sport’s popularity in the country made it an appropriate host. World Athletics has also presented the decision as part of a broader effort to take its championships to new audiences and regions.
But the decision has attracted criticism in parts of the European athletics media, particularly over Kenya’s long-running doping problem. Writing in The Times, athletics journalist Matt Lawton questioned the decision to award the championships to Kenya while the country continues to face a substantial number of anti-doping cases.
He cited Athletics Integrity Unit data showing that 318 Kenyan athletes have been sanctioned for anti-doping rule violations since 2017, with 136 serving bans at the time of his report. The Independent raised similar concerns, reporting that 148 Kenyan athletes were serving doping bans according to AIU data and arguing that the integrity issue could create difficult optics for a World Championships staged in Nairobi.
The report also pointed to wider concerns surrounding athlete welfare and allegations of sexual and gender-based violence in Kenyan sport. These are criticisms from the publication and should not be interpreted as a finding by World Athletics that Kenya is unsuitable to host the championships.
London’s unsuccessful bid has also generated disappointment. UK Athletics chief executive Jack Buckner said the organisation was “deeply disappointed”, while London’s bid had government and mayoral backing and proposed a £45 million financial commitment. London previously hosted a successful 2017 World Championships, drawing large crowds at the London Stadium.
Some of the European criticism has therefore focused on whether Nairobi’s historic significance should outweigh the established commercial, organisational and sporting infrastructure of cities such as London.
The Times argued that London had presented a strong bid and questioned why the championships could not have gone there in 2029 before moving to Munich in 2031. World Athletics has rejected the suggestion that the decision was simply a choice between established European infrastructure and an African newcomer.
Coe said the council considered multiple factors, including financial guarantees, growth potential and the strategic expansion of the sport. He also stressed that Europe remains central to World Athletics, pointing to Munich’s selection for 2031. For Nairobi, the decision nevertheless represents a major shift in the geography of global athletics. Kenya has spent decades producing Olympic and world champions but has never hosted the senior World Athletics Championships.
In 2029, the world’s leading athletes will compete at Kasarani in a country where athletics is deeply embedded in sporting culture, while the event itself will test whether Kenya can combine that heritage with the organisational standards and anti-doping scrutiny expected of a global championship.