Nairobi 2029: World Championships head to Africa for first time
The World Athletics Championships will be held in Africa for the first time when Nairobi stages the 2029 edition, according to BBC Sounds.
That is the story at the centre of a 24-minute BBC World Service edition of More than the Score, released on 21 September 2026 and titled ‘The World Athletics Championships come to Kenya’.
Kenya arrives at that home championships with deep pedigree. The country is the second-most successful nation in World Championships history, with 72 gold medals. None were won at home.
The episode is presented by Lee James. His guests are BBC Africa’s Celestine Karoney and Wesley Korir, the Kenyan distance runner turned politician who won both the Boston Marathon and the Los Angeles Marathon.
Korir knows the roads and the championship stage. Karoney brings the view from inside Kenyan sport. Together they discuss what it means for Nairobi to host the global title meeting for track and field.
More than the Score is a BBC World Service programme built around stories from all over the world of sport, with what the BBC describes as unexpected questions and beyond-the-scoresheet chat, from Formula One to netball BBC Programmes. Its range includes MMA, figure skating, Grand Slam tennis and Diamond League athletics. The series lists 246 episodes on BBC Sounds.
For fans, this means a familiar script flipped. Kenya’s champions have long had to travel to win gold. In 2029, the road comes to them.
