Today, the World Athletics Council will meet to decide the host cities for the World Athletics Championship in 2029 and 2031.
Kenya will be following the proceedings at the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, with a lot of interest because Nairobi is competing with three European cities of London, Rome and Munich.
After the speeches have died down, members of the World Athletics Council will take a decisive vote in Budapest. World Athletics President, Lord Sebastian Coe, will announce the winner in a virtual media conference.
For Kenya, the announcement could mark the culmination of a long-running ambition to stage the sport’s biggest athletics extravaganza on home soil.
Kenya’s campaign to host the championships carries significance that extends beyond Nairobi and a successful bid would make Kenya the first African country to host the biennial championships since its inauguration in 1983.
For a nation that has produced generations of world and Olympic champions, the prospect of finally watching the world’s best athletes compete in front of a home crowd has created excitement across Kenya and the region, particularly in Uganda and Ethiopia, countries which have had a long rivalry with Kenya in distance running.
The decision, however, will also test whether Kenya has finally addressed the infrastructural concerns that contributed to a failed bid to host the 2025 championships, which eventually went to Tokyo.
This time, Athletics Kenya says it has presented a “robust, government-backed bid built around organisational capacity, security, infrastructure and the country’s long experience of hosting international athletics events”.
At the centre of Kenya’s bid is the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. The 48,000-capacity stadium is undergoing major renovation, with the upgrades expected to be completed ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, which Kenya will co-host with Uganda and Tanzania.
The refurbished Kasarani Stadium is the centerpiece of Kenya’s bid to host the World Athletics Championship. Kenya has proposed to undertake some improvements to the other sporting and supporting infrastructure.
From left: AK president Jack Tuwei, World Athletics President Seb Coe and world 800m record holder David Rudisha at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on August 17, 2021.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
World Athletics evaluation panel has visited all the candidate cities and a final decision is due today.
The country staged the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, the 2017 World Athletics Under-18 Championships in Nairobi, and the 2020 World Athletics Under-20 Championships which were held in 2021 at Kasarani Stadium.
The successful staging of the 2020 World Athletics Under-20 Championships, followed by the country’s continued hosting of major international meetings, has provided Kenya with invaluable organisational expertise.
Kenya currently hosts three World Athletics Gold Label events — the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold (Kip Keino Classic) in Nairobi, and the Great Chepsaita Cross Country and Sirikwa Classic Cross Country which are World Athletics Gold Tour races in Uasin Gishu County.
The 2020 World Athletics Under-20 Championships also demonstrated Kenya’s ability to host a truly international field, while the more recent upgrades at Kasarani Stadium and Nyayo National Stadium have been presented as evidence of the country’s renewed commitment to sporting infrastructure.
Nairobi faces stiff competition from London’s Olympic Stadium which hosted the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2017 World Athletics.
Inside Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi on August 1, 2025.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
Championships. Perhaps this gives the British capital city the strongest recent track record among the bidders.
Rome’s Stadio Olimpico hosted the 1987 World Athletics Championships, and the 2024 European Athletics Championships, while Munich’s Olympiastadion staged the 2022 European Athletics Championships.
Munich, however, has indicated a preference for 2031 because of a potential clash between a 2029 championship and the German Gymnastics Festival and Women’s Euro 2029.
The European bids therefore come with established facilities and a proven history of delivering major global sporting events.
Kenya’s advantage is different because it is the emotional and sporting argument that the World Athletics Championships should finally come to a continent that has supplied some of the greatest athletes in the history of the sport but has never hosted its premier outdoor global championship.
Kenya’s athletics legends believe a home championship would give a new generation of athletes something their predecessors never had – the opportunity to compete for global honours in front of their families, friends and supporters.
Kipchoge Keino, Kenya’s first Olympic champion and a former Athletics Kenya president, believes such an occasion would be particularly meaningful for the country’s retired athletes.
“I have travelled to many countries competing while at the administration level and I think it would be great to see the younger generation running in Nairobi. We have the best weather in the world and competing in such altitudes would be exciting… we hope the championships will be coming home,” Keino said.
He believes the event would allow former Kenyan champions to witness the next generation competing on home soil.
Amos Biwott, Kenya’s first Olympic steeplechase champion, shares the same sentiments. He says he would be happy to welcome the world.
From left: Nigeria’s Favour Ofili and Namibian duo of Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi pose for a photo after the women’s 200 metres final race of the 2021 World Athletics Under-20 Championships at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on August 21, 2021.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
The 1968 Olympic champion believes Kenya has spent decades giving the world champions without ever giving its own supporters the opportunity to watch them battle for global titles at home.
Kenya has won 72 World Championships gold medals and 38 Olympic gold medals, while Kenyan athletes currently hold a remarkable number of world records. Kenya also finished second on the medal table at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo with seven gold medals.
Meanwhile, President William Ruto threw his weight behind the campaign, saying Kenya and Africa is ready to make history.
“Kenya stands before you not just as a home of champions, but as a country fully prepared to make history. Place its confidence in Nairobi to stage not only a memorable 2029 World Athletics Championships, but also to deliver an event worthy of the championship’s rich global legacy,” President Ruto said.
For a country whose athletes have dominated distance running for generations, and a continent that has become increasingly central to the global athletics story, Nairobi believes the time has come for the championship to make its African debut.
