London to bid to bring athletics World Championships back to capital in 2027

Mo Farah brought an end to his glittering career when London hosted in 2017.
Getty Images

London is bidding to bring back the athletics World Championships to the capital in 2027.

The London Stadium successfully hosted last year’s event, which proved to be the career swansong for Usain Bolt and also Mo Farah’s farewell to the track in his home city.

At the time, IAAF president Seb Coe welcomed the prospect of a swift return for the event to London and UK Athletics are now ready to put forward a proposal for Britain to host the showcase.

London would not be the sole candidate should a UK bid prove successful.

There would be competition from the likes of Birmingham in the wake of it hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and Glasgow. UKA is also pushing the prospect of being home to the European Championships the preceding year, although London is not thought to be the frontrunner.

As hosts in 2017, Britain picked up two gold medals — courtesy of Farah’s farewell and the men’s 4x100metre relay team — and six medals in all.

It also proved a muted end to Bolt’s career, as he could only muster bronze in the 100m before pulling up injured for Jamaica in the sprint relay, helping to pave the way for Britain to take an unexpected gold.

Coe told Standard Sport last year: “For years, athletics just did not have the fitting venue [in the UK]. It does now, and I hope and believe this stadium will host future European and World Championships and Commonwealth Games.”

The IAAF, though, is equally keen to spread the global reach of the sport, with the next Worlds due to be held in Qatar in 2019 and the subsequent one in Eugene, Oregon.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in