The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) kicked off its autumn session on Tuesday, November 18, in Monaco and made a number of important announcements. Top of the agenda were decisions regarding the bids from various cities to host key IAAF events.

After deliberations, the IAAF Council, chaired by President Lamine Diack, announced that the IAAF 2019 World Championships will be hosted by Doha, Qatar while the 2018 IAAF Continental Cup will be hosted by Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Crucially for the Africa, two cities on the continent were successful with their bids. Kampala and Uganda have emerged host cities of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships while Nairobi, Kenya, was named the host of the IAAF World Youth Championships.

Kampala’s bid was led by Uganda’s Honorary State Minister of Education and Sport, Hon. Charles Bakabulindi and Domenic Otucet of the Ugandan Athletics Federation. Both played important roles as they secured hosting rights to Uganda’s first ever IAAF World Athletics Series competition.

Kampala won the bid after emerging victorious in a vote against the city of Manama, Bahrain. The 2017 IAAF World Cross Country Championships will see the event return to Africa ten years after it was last held in Kenya.

In a similar vein, Nairobi was announced as hosts of the 2017 IAAF World Youth Championships. The capital city of Kenya won a sole vote as there were no challengers to the bid.

The Nairobi bid team for the IAAF World Youth Championships Dr Hassan Wario Arero, the Cabinet Principal Secretary at the Ministry for Sports Culture and the Arts.

IAAF events are widely regarded as the gold standard for athletics meets with a healthy number of tourists and athletics enthusiasts expected to travel for these events. With Kenya already experienced in hosting the events after its successful hosting of the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Uganda will be keen to give the world a memorable and also lay its claim for being equipped to host major sporting events.

In the meantime, both nations- Kenya and Uganda – as well as their Local Organizing Committees will have case-studies to model their events upon as there will be editions of both tournaments held next year. The next edition of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships takes place in Guiyang (CHN), 28 March 2015 while the next edition of the IAAF World Youth Championships will take place in Cali (COL), 15-19 July 2015.

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