Africa to bid for 2017 IAAF World Championships

July 27, 2010

The success of this summer’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa has led the president of the African Athletics Confederation to announce the continent is considering a bid for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2017.

Hamad Kalkaba Malboum said: “We are encouraged by the recent FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Morocco is most likely to bid for the 2017 World Championships and, if they do, we think they can win.

“Besides Morocco, we know that South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt can all stage a successful World Championships but because Morocco tried the bid for 2015 we think they stand a good chance in 2017.”

The 2011 World Championships will be held in Daegu, South Korea, while the 2013 event will be in Moscow, Russia. London and Beijing have announced bids for the 2015 Championships. The event had never been held in Africa.