The 2029 World Athletics Championships will take place in Africa for the first time after Nairobi won the bid to stage the event, with the Kenyan capital surprisingly winning out over rival bids from London and Rome.
It was also announced that Munich will host the event in 2031, returning to Germany for the third time, following what World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said was the “one of the strongest bidding processes in the history of the sport’s flagship event”.
The host venues were announced after the 242nd World Athletics Council Meeting in Budapest on Tuesday morning, with London losing out on its bid to host the championships for the second time, after 2017.
“We were fortunate to have four outstanding bids for 2029 and 2031, and this was not an easy decision for the Council,” said Coe. “The quality, ambition and commitment demonstrated by all four candidates underlines the strength and global appeal of the World Athletics Championships.
“With this Council decision today, we continue to fulfil our mission of growing athletics worldwide with the hosting of our World Athletics Championships in Asia, Africa and Europe over its next three editions.
“Nairobi and Munich ultimately presented two compelling propositions. They offer very different but equally exciting opportunities for our sport, and I am delighted that we can now begin working with both cities to stage two world-class championships.”
Nairobi’s successful bid follows Kampala in Uganda hosting the World Cross-Country Championships in 2017, with Nairobi also staging the World Under-18 Championships later that year. Botswana hosted the World Athletics Relays in May of this year, the first edition of that event to be held in Africa.
Having previously bid to host the 2025 championships, awarded to Tokyo, according to World Athletics, Nairobi returned with an even stronger proposition for 2029, drawing on almost a decade of experience in staging major international athletics events. The 60,000-capacity Kasarani stadium will host the event.
“Nairobi presented a compelling and emotional bid, taking the World Athletics Championships to Africa for the first time will be historic,” added Coe. “Kenya is one of the great athletics nations.
“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.”
Munich’s successful bid brings the World Championships back to Germany for the first time since Berlin staged the event in 2009. Berlin also hosted the European Championships in 2018, while Munich’s Olympic Stadium last hosted the 2022 European Championships.
The 2027 World Athletics Championships will next take place in Beijing, from September 10th to 19th.
Both Nairobi 2029 and Munich 2031 will also take place in September in line with the objective for the global athletics calendar to reach its climax at the end of the season with a major global championship.