Africa is set to witness a historic moment in global athletics after Nairobi, Kenya, was officially selected to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, becoming the first African city ever to stage the sport’s biggest global championship.
The decision was taken during the 242nd World Athletics Council Meeting in Budapest on Monday and Tuesday, September 14–15, following what World Athletics described as one of the strongest bidding processes in the history of the championships.
Nairobi will host the 2029 edition, while Munich, Germany, has been selected to stage the 2031 World Athletics Championships.
The historic decision represents a major breakthrough for African athletics and a reward for Kenya’s decades-long contribution to the development and success of the sport.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said Nairobi presented a compelling bid and 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.
He described Kenya as one of the great athletics nations, noting that the sport is deeply woven into the country’s culture.
Nairobi’s successful bid was strengthened by Kenya’s impressive history of hosting major international athletics events.
The Kenyan capital hosted the World U18 Championships in 2017 and the World U20 Championships in 2021, while the country also stages the prestigious Kip Keino Classic, which has been part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold since 2020.
According to World Athletics fan research, 68 percent of Kenyans surveyed rated their interest in athletics as high, compared with a global average of 39 percent.
Kenya is also the second-most successful nation in World Athletics Championships history and finished second on the medal table at the Tokyo 2025 World Championships with seven gold medals and 11 medals overall.
The country has produced some of the greatest names in athletics history, including Olympic and world champions such as Faith Kipyegon, Eliud Kipchoge, David Rudisha, Hellen Obiri, Vivian Cheruiyot and Kip Keino.
The decision is also the latest step in what has become a steady expansion of major World Athletics events across the continent.
Uganda hosted the World Cross Country Championships in Kampala in 2017, Nairobi hosted two global youth championships, and Gaborone, Botswana, hosted the 2026 World Athletics Relays — the first edition of the event to be held in Africa.
Nairobi 2029 will now take that progression to an entirely new level.
For the first time, athletes from across the world will converge on African soil for the full World Athletics Championships.
The championships are expected to be staged at the renovated Kasarani Stadium, which is undergoing a major structural overhaul ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
Two years after Nairobi, the championships will return to Germany, with Munich selected to host the 2031 edition at the iconic Olympic Stadium.
Germany last hosted the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009.
Munich’s bid was strengthened by its successful staging of athletics during the 2022 European Championships, which attracted approximately 267,000 spectators.
World Athletics said Munich’s plans would combine athletics with art and culture while placing strong emphasis on sustainability.
Before Nairobi and Munich take centre stage, Beijing, China, will host the next World Athletics Championships from September 10–19, 2027.
The sequence means the world’s premier athletics championship will travel across three continents Asia in 2027, Africa in 2029 and Europe in 2031.
For Africa, however, Nairobi 2029 will remain the landmark edition.
After decades of producing some of the world’s greatest distance runners, the continent will finally welcome the world’s biggest athletics championship to its own soil.
Nairobi 2029 is not just a championship for Kenya it is a historic championship for Africa.
