President of World Athletics, Sebastian Lord Coe, has explained why Nairobi missed out on hosting the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
The World Athletics Council awarded the 2025 World Athletics Championships to Tokyo, which held the postponed 2020 Olympic Games last year.
In an interview with Ghanaian journalist, Muftawu Nabila Abdulai at the recently completed World Athletics Championships in Oregon, Coe stated that Nairobi had a good chance of hosting the global track and field event due to the enormous love for athletics in Kenya, but the council was concerned with the capacity to host and the limited available facilities.
“Kenya has a stadium which has to be refurbished, or a new one has to be constructed and the council was concerned due to the time frame, and the resources that would be needed and thus Tokyo was awarded because they have ready facilities,” said Coe in the interview.
He said all of the cities that bid were amazing and each had every cause to be selected, but Tokyo emerged the best in the competitive selection process.
Kenya has two international stadiums: The Moi International Sports Center in Kasarani and the Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi. Both are in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
Silesia and Singapore were the other applicants for the event, and they were all regarded as strong and experienced enough to host it. It implies that Africa would have to wait longer to host the world’s most prestigious sporting event.
The Council meeting in Oregon also awarded the 2024 World Cross Country Championships to Pula and Medulin in Croatia, as well as the 2026 World Cross Country Championships to Florida.
Budapest, Hungary, will host the World Athletics Championships in 2023.
In the bid review, Tokyo scored the highest of the four finalists in four key areas: the potential for a compelling story, revenue-generating prospects for World Athletics, the capacity of the site to raise the sport’s international reputation, and an adequate environment.
In recent years, Kenya has successfully hosted major athletics events such as the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, the 2017 World Athletics Under-18 Championships in Nairobi, and the 2021 World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi.
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Kenya has also hosted the Kip Keino Classic, a World Athletics Continental Gold Tour event, for three years in a row, as well as the Memorial Agnes Tirop World Cross Country Tour, which was held in Eldoret in February of this year.
