Max SteventonNairobi has been selected to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first African city to stage the event.
The Kenyan capital was chosen ahead of London (pictured), Rome and Munich following a competitive bidding process, with the decision made by the World Athletics Council in Budapest today (15 September).
The 2029 championships will be held at Nairobi’s Kasarani Stadium (cap. 48,000), which is undergoing a major redevelopment ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nairobi has previously hosted the World U18 Championships in 2017 and World U20 Championships in 2021, while the city’s Kip Keino Classic has been part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold since 2020.
The decision builds on a growing record of major athletics events being held in Africa. Kampala hosted the World Cross Country Championships in 2017, while Gaborone staged the World Athletics Relays in 2026, the first edition of the event to be held on the continent.
Kenya is the second-most successful nation in World Athletics Championships history and finished second on the medal table at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, winning seven gold medals and 11 medals overall.
Interest in athletics is also particularly strong in Kenya, with World Athletics research showing that 68% of those surveyed rated their interest in the sport as high, compared with a global average of 39%.
Munich has also been selected to host the 2031 World Athletics Championships, bringing the event back to Germany for the third time after Stuttgart in 1993 and Berlin in 2009. The championships will be held at Munich’s Olympic Stadium (cap. 63,000), which hosted athletics during the 2022 European Championships.
The next World Athletics Championships will take place in Beijing from 10-19 September 2027, followed by Nairobi in 2029 and Munich two years after that..
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said, “Nairobi presented a compelling and emotional bid, and taking the World Athletics Championships to Africa for the first time will be historic.”
“Kenya is one of the great athletics nations. The sport is woven into the fabric of the country, and athletes such as world gold medallists Faith Kipyegon, Vivian Cheruiyot, Eliud Kipchoge, Hellen Obiri and David Rudisha, as well as two-time Olympic champion Kip Keino, multiple world cross-country champion Paul Tergat and multiple world half marathon champion Tegla Loroupe, have shaped the history of our sport.”
“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. Nairobi has demonstrated emphatically that this is their moment.”