NAIROBI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Kenya believes the poor organization witnessed in Nigeria prior to the ongoing 2018 African Championships in Athletics will not affect Africa's hopes of hosting the Athletics World Championships in 2025.
With the 2023 championships having been awarded to Budapest during last week's IAAF Council Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, IAAF president Sebastian Coe has hinted that the 2025 World Championships could be staged in Africa.
Coe made the assertion on Wednesday in Asaba, Nigeria, while lauding 16 athletes who were inducted into the African Athletics Confederation (CAA) Hall of Fame.
Last year, CAA President Kalkaba Melboum had said that the confederation was in talks with several countries with a view to putting in a bid for the 2025 tournament.
"We are talking with Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco - those countries have the facilities," said Melboum.
Kenya have expressed an interest in bidding for the games after having successfully been granted the rights to host the 2020 World Junior Championships in Nairobi.
Barnaba Korir, a vice-chairman with Athletics Kenya, said it was embarrassing seeing what happened in Nigeria, adding that the continent deserves better.
The Athletics World Championships is the third largest sporting event in the world after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. Billions of TV viewers across the globe tune in to watch athletes from up to 212 countries and regions compete for 47 gold medals.
The IAAF stipulates that for a city to qualify to stage the World Championships, it needs to have a stadium that can hold over 30,000 fans and a budget in excess of 20 million U.S. dollars. It must also be able to pay prize money totaling 7.2 million U.S. dollars.
