{"id":45572,"date":"2026-09-15T20:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45572"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:50:33","slug":"nairobi-to-host-2029-world-athletics-championships-in-african-first","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nairobi-to-host-2029-world-athletics-championships-in-african-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Nairobi to host 2029 World Athletics Championships in African first"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Nairobi has been selected to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, with the Kenyan capital becoming \u200bthe first African city to stage the \u200cevent.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>World Athletics announced the decision on Tuesday after its council meeting in Budapest, while also awarding the 2031 edition to \u200bMunich.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Nairobi had previously failed in its bid \u200bto host the event in 2025, which went \u2060to Tokyo. The Kenyan capital previously staged the \u200bWorld U18 Championships in 2017 and the World U20 \u200bChampionships in 2021.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Events will take place at Kasarani Stadium, which is being renovated ahead of hosting matches at the 2027 \u200bAfrica Cup of Nations.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Nairobi presented a compelling and \u200bemotional bid, and taking the World Athletics Championships to Africa for \u200cthe \u2060first time will be historic,&#8221; said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Kenya is one of the great athletics nations. The sport is woven into the fabric of \u200bthe country.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Munich \u200bwill host \u2060the 2031 event at the Olympic Stadium, bringing the championships back to Germany \u200bfor the first time since Berlin in \u200b2009.<\/div>\n<div>\u201cGermany \u2060has proved time and again that it is an outstanding and dependable host for major athletics events,\u201d Coe \u2060said.<\/div>\n<div>Both \u200bevents will take place in the \u200bmonth of September, in line with the 2027 championships in Beijing.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21698,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-45572","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Nairobi had previously failed in its bid \u200bto host the event in 2025, which went \u2060to Tokyo.","published_date":"","news_description":"Nairobi had previously failed in its bid \u200bto host the event in 2025, which went \u2060to Tokyo.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45573,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45572\/revisions\/45573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}