News Story

London `deeply disappointed´ to lose out to Nairobi with World Championship bid

The Kenyan country becomes the first African host of the global showpiece.

London has lost a bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships to Nairobi, who will become the first African hosts of the global showpiece.

Munich, one of the other 2029 bidders, was awarded the following edition, in 2031, while Rome also missed out.

The decision was made during the 242nd World Athletics Council meeting in Budapest following recommendations from a selection panel, and has left London bid organisers feeling “deeply disappointed”.

In August, organisers of the London bid reached an agreement with West Ham over use of the London Stadium, in what was seen as a vital boost to their campaign.

Later that month, images of empty seats at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham sparked concerns about the London bid, a perception Lord Coe played down when he addressed the media at those championships.

On Tuesday, when asked if either had affected London’s bid, Lord Coe replied: “I’m not going to maintain a running commentary today on some of the judgement and the basis of those judgements.

“We will, of course, be sitting down with all the bidding cities, and remember in the past, we have had bidding cities that had been unsuccessful that have come back into the frame and understood and grasped as Nairobi has, the challenges of putting forward another bid.”

London hosted a highly-successful world championships at the Olympic Stadium in 2017, and the city’s bid had been backed by approximately £45million in guaranteed public-sector investment.

UK Athletics chief Jack Buckner, also the co-founder of bid organisers Athletics Ventures, said: “We are deeply disappointed that the 2029 World Athletics Championships will not be held in London. We believed we had an outstanding bid which would genuinely take the sport to new levels.

“The UK is an incredible host for major sports events and the British public loves athletics. Athletics Ventures has the ambition to bring those events here and, although today’s announcement hasn’t gone our way, we will review and regroup.

“We know the world’s athletes love competing here and we’ll continue to explore further opportunities to make that happen.”

The Kenyan capital also bid for the 2025 worlds, which were staged in Tokyo. The 2029 edition, now set for a marathon talent hotbed, will be the last to feature marathon before it moves to a standalone world championship.

Asked if there was concern about what will be a lengthy spell between three successive world championships away from Europe with the 2028 Olympics taking place in Los Angeles Lord Coe replied: “Europe is a heartland and we openly accept that.

“It is in large part the bread-basket of our sport, but we do also have a responsibility to make sure that an international governing federation made up of well over 200 federations has the opportunity to be able to take our championships into areas that, strategically, we think will actually grow the footprint of our sport.”

Lord Coe was adamant that the Nairobi decision was made “not simply on the clear historic ground-breaking nature (but also) some really serious analysis”.

While he would not name cities, Lord Coe also said he would be “surprised” if some of the 2029 bidders did not express an interest in hosting the next edition of the World Ultimate Championships.