Kenya confirmed hosts of World Athletics Championships 2029

World Athletics have confirmed Nairobi as the host city for the 2029 World Athletics Championships.

The Kenyan capital was chosen by the World Athletics Council during its meeting in Budapest on Monday and Tuesday, September 14-15.

Germany’s Munich will host the 2031 championships.

Nairobi’s selection is a major milestone for African athletics and builds on the continent’s growing experience of hosting major World Athletics events.

Kenya has previously hosted the World U18 Championships in Nairobi in 2017 and the World U20 Championships in 2021. Uganda hosted the World Cross Country Championships in Kampala in 2017, while Botswana staged the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone in 2026 – the first time that event was held in Africa.

But the 2029 championships will be different.

For the first time, Africa will welcome the full World Athletics Championships, bringing the world’s leading track and field athletes to the continent.

Nairobi’s Kasarani Stadium will be at the centre of the event.

The stadium is currently undergoing a major renovation ahead of Kenya co-hosting the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, giving the country an opportunity to have a modernised venue ready for the athletics championships two years later.

Nairobi’s case was strengthened by its growing reputation as a major athletics hub.

The city has hosted the Kip Keino Classic, one of Africa’s leading one-day athletics meetings and part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold since its launch in 2020.

The 2017 World U18 Championships also demonstrated Kenya’s huge appetite for athletics, with large crowds turning out at Kasarani Stadium throughout the competition.

That passion is reflected in World Athletics research, which found that 68% of Kenyans surveyed have a high interest in athletics, compared with a global average of 39%.

Athletics is also Kenya’s second-most-followed sport behind football.

The country’s rich record on the track further strengthens the significance of the decision.

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.

Some of the sport’s biggest names have emerged from Kenya, including Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon, Eliud Kipchoge, Hellen Obiri, David Rudisha, Vivian Cheruiyot and legendary Olympic champion Kip Keino.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe described Nairobi’s bid as compelling and said the decision represented an important moment for the sport.

“Taking the World Athletics Championships to Africa for the first time will be historic,” Coe said.

“Kenya is one of the great athletics nations. The sport is woven into the fabric of the country.”

He added that Nairobi had shown that the time was right for the championships to come to Africa.

“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,” Coe said.

“Nairobi has demonstrated emphatically that this is their moment.”

The 2029 championships will therefore be more than another major sporting event for Kenya.

They will represent a historic breakthrough for African athletics, bringing the sport’s biggest stage to a continent that has produced generations of world-class distance runners but has never before hosted the full World Athletics Championships.

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