Kenya confirmed its bid to host the 2025 Athletics World Championships, which if accepted, would bring the event to Africa for the first time.
Nairobi has hosted both the world under-18 and under-20 World Championships in the last four years, but faces a string of high-profile rivals including Tokyo, which staged the Olympic Games in July.
“We formally confirmed our bid to host the global championships on Friday October 1 which was the deadline set by World Athletics,” Athletics Kenya chief Jackson Tuwei told AFP.
“We organised two very successful world junior championships at the Kasarani stadium in 2017 and in August 2021, where a number of world records and personal bests were realised,” he said.
“We learnt a lot of lessons in staging both events, and realistically it is our time to bring the biggest event.”
Over the years, Kenya has become one of the countries to have produced the most successful long-distance runners, but has yet to see the World Championships elite runners perform in the country.
Africa has never hosted the World Athletics (WA) premier showpiece, which was first contested in Helsinki, Finland in 1983.
Kenyan sports minister Amina Mohammed first announced the country’s bid for the 2025 world championships in Doha in September 2019, after WA said the global event would be held on a rotational basis across continents.
Kenya confirms bid for 2025 World Athletics Championships
Ethiopian Tamirat Tola sets Amsterdam Marathon Course Record
The Amesterdam Marathon saw both its Men’s and Women’s record tumble as Tamerat Tola and Angela Tanui won titles in the Dutch capital. Ethiopia Tola took the lead in the final 2 miles of the race for a time of 2:03.38, beating Kenyan Lawrence Cherono’s previous men’s record. And Tanui’s 2:15:57 topped Degitu Azimerew’s 2019 record.
Tamerat who finished second in the London Marathon in 2017, and bronze in the 10,000m race at Rio 2016 was among six runners left at the end of the race, edging ahead in the final two miles to take the win.
The winning time by the 2017 marathon World Championship silver medalist, improved the previous course record by almost half a minute (2:04:06), while he also moved up seven spots on the world all-time list to 16th.
Meanwhile Kenyan Angella Tanuia late addition to the elite field after her plans to compete in Boston derailed because visa issues, also moved away from the field late to win by more than two minutes, clocking a time of 2:17:57 in the end.
Brenard Koech of Kenya finished second with a time of 2:04:09, while Leul Gebreselasse of Ethiopia rounded out the podium places with a third-place finish with 2:04:12.
That performance eclipsed the previous TSC Amsterdam Marathon course record of 2:19:26 while improving her previous best of 2:20:08, which she set earlier this year in Ampugnano. Kenyan Maureen Chepkemoi ran 2:20:18 for second place, with the podium spots rounded out by Ethiopian Haven Hailu with 2:20:19. Completing the top five were Ethiopian duo Gebeyanesh Ayele (2:21:22) and Worknesh Alemu (2:26:54).
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WTM Africa and ILTM Africa go Hybrid in 2022
- World Travel Market Africa (WTM Africa) and the International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM Africa) will adopt a hybrid format next year, allowing exhibitors to connect with more buyers than ever before.
- The virtual event will take place on 04 and 05 April 2022, one week before the live event, and will only be open to exhibitors attending the physical event.
World Travel Market Africa (WTM Africa) and the International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM Africa) will be adopting a hybrid format for the popular travel and tourism trade shows in 2022, allowing exhibitors to connect with buyers both at a live event and a two-day virtual event. The hybrid format ensures a significant return on investment and buyers and exhibitors can benefit from 22% more meeting time slots than what was previously available to them.
WTM Africa will be held live and in-person from 11 to 13 April 2022, alongside ILTM Africa. As Africa’s only inbound and outbound premier travel and tourism trade show, the event will once again bring together exhibitors and buyers from across the globe to connect, exchange ideas, share news and discuss innovation within the travel and tourism sector.
The three-day live event in the Host City of Cape Town is open to all travel trade professionals. Visitors can look forward to attending conference sessions with speakers from around the globe, face-to-face networking, the African Responsible Tourism Awards, press conferences and more!
Recognising that some buyers might not be able to attend the live event, the event organisers have introduced a hybrid format for the show. The hybrid event will take place on 04 and 05 April and will only be open to exhibitors who are also attending the physical event one week later.
During the virtual event, exhibitors will be able to connect with buyers from around the world who are not able to attend the live event because of border closures, COVID regulations or simply a lingering unease to travel. Both one-on-one meetings as well as virtual speed networking sessions will be available on the same platform that was successfully used for ATW Virtual 2021. The virtual event is exclusive to exhibitors and buyers only.
Different buyers will attend each event meaning that exhibitors will receive marked value as the buyers that they will meet online will be different to those that will be attending the physical event thereby offering a diverse and enhanced pool of buyers.
“Our focus has always been to ensure the best return on investment for our clients. Africa Travel Week 2022 will enable education and content sharing as well as networking, providing the opportunity to meet and discuss business, leading to contracts being signed whilst expanding connections,” says Megan Oberholzer, Portfolio Director: Travel, Tourism and Creative Industries at Reed Exhibitions.
“We are thrilled to finally bring exhibitors and buyers together in person in the Host City of Cape Town. Africa Travel Week is proud to have been partners with the City of Cape Town since the inception of WTM Africa in 2014 and we’re grateful for the unwavering support the city has shown us. As one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town truly is the ideal destination for travel and tourism industry players to not only communicate and connect, but also to share stories and laughs over a glass of wine. Although virtual connections have kept our industry afloat over the past year, it is now time to take it to the next level again. A compelling live event creates memories and meaningful relationships. And, after all, that’s what our industry is all about.”
