{"id":45715,"date":"2026-09-17T09:22:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45715"},"modified":"2026-09-17T09:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:22:40","slug":"au-congratulates-kenya-on-winning-2029-world-athletics-championships-bid","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/au-congratulates-kenya-on-winning-2029-world-athletics-championships-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"AU congratulates Kenya on winning 2029 World Athletics Championships bid \u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, has congratulated the government and people of Kenya following Nairobi&#8217;s selection to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, describing the decision as a landmark achievement for African sport.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In an official statement, Youssouf commended Kenya for securing the hosting rights, noting that staging the premier global athletics event on African soil for the first time represents a monumental milestone for the continent. The decision was confirmed by the World Athletics Council following a competitive bidding process, awarding the 2029 edition to Nairobi and the 2031 edition to Munich, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting the broader significance for the continent, the AUC leadership highlighted that hosting the global showpiece underscores Africa&#8217;s growing capacity to organise major international sporting events while fostering continental unity and development.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The selection of Nairobi reflects the growing recognition of Africa&#8217;s capacity to host major international sporting events and underscores the important contribution of sport to advancing Africa&#8217;s global engagement, strengthening people-to-people ties, and promoting unity, solidarity, and mutual understanding among nations,&#8221; Youssouf stated. &#8220;The AU looks forward to the championships as a celebration of Africa&#8217;s sporting excellence and an expression of the continent&#8217;s unity, talent, and potential.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":45716,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-45715","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"AU leadership hails Kenya hosting 2029 World Athletics","published_date":"2026-09-17 09:20:15","news_description":"AU leadership hails Kenya hosting 2029 World Athletics","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45715","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\/45715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45717,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45715\/revisions\/45717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}