Nairobi, Kenya will host the IAAF World Youth Championships 2017, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Council announced at the Fairmont Hotel in Monaco on Tuesday.
The Kenyan capital was the only candidate for this IAAF competition but the Nairobi delegation convincingly persuaded the IAAF Council to endorse its right to host this event, the second IAAF World Athletics Series competition to be held in the country after the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
The Nairobi bid team included Dr Hassan Wario Arero, the Cabinet Principal Secretary at the Ministry for Sports Culture and the Arts as well as local government and Athletics Kenya (AK) officials.
Also included in the delegation were the well-known athletes Mercy Cherono and Jairus Birech, the latter the 2014 Diamond Race winner in the men’s 3000m steeplechase.
This is the 2nd time that the IAAF World Youth Championships will be hosted in Africa. Morocco hosted it in 2005. The next edition of the IAAF World Youth Championships will take place in Cali, Columbia from July 15-19, 2015.
Kampala, Uganda will host the 2017 World Cross Country Championships while Doha, Qatar was awarded the hosting rights for the World Championships in 2019.