London's bid to host the 2029 World Athletics Championships has been unsuccessful, with Nairobi selected as the host city, marking the first time the event will be held in Africa. The decision, announced on Tuesday, September 15, follows recommendations from a selection panel and has left bid organisers 'deeply disappointed'.
Munich, another bidder for the 2029 edition, was awarded the following championships in 2031, while Rome also missed out. The London bid had received a significant boost in August when organisers reached an agreement with West Ham over the use of the London Stadium, which was seen as vital to the campaign.
Bid Background and Support
The London Stadium has a strong history of hosting athletics events, most recently when Great Britain's Josh Kerr broke the men's mile world record at the London Diamond League held at the stadium in July. Earlier this year, Olympic 800 metres champion Keely Hodgkinson made a public appeal to West Ham, urging a solution to allow the championships to come to London in 2029.
In a post on X, Hodgkinson responded to speculation that West Ham's stance could scupper the bid, saying: "The GB team will bring back more medals to that stadium than West Ham have seen in their entire history." She later added that she had "enjoyed the rattled comments" and urged the club to "let us have this moment". She also said: "In all seriousness, to have a global championships back in London would be incredible for our sport. I didn't think we'd get the opportunity again during my career."
Concerns and Official Response
Last month, images of empty seats at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham sparked concerns about the London bid, a perception that Lord Coe, president of World Athletics, played down when addressing the media at those championships. On Tuesday, when asked if it 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."
He added: "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."
Reaction from Bid Organisers
London hosted a highly successful world championships at the Olympic Stadium in 2017, and the city's bid had been backed by approximately £45 million in guaranteed public-sector investment. UK Athletics chief Jack Buckner, also 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."
He continued: "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."
Future Implications
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 the marathon before it moves to a standalone world championship. Asked about the lengthy spell between three successive world championships away from Europe – with the 2028 Olympics taking place in Los Angeles – Lord Coe noted: "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, which concluded in Budapest on Sunday.
