Africa could get the chance to host the 2025 World Athletics Championships after head of athletics on the continent revealed plans to bid for the showpiece.
Hamad Kalkaba Malboum says one of six African nations; Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco is preparing to request for rights to host the event.
“We are talking with Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco – those countries have the facilities,” the Cameroonian and the president of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) is quoted by BBC Sport.
“I have very positive sounds from some of them.”
Morocco at one time tried to bid for the competition. The city of Casablanca submitted letters of intent to host the 2011 World Championships but lost out to Daegu.
Following successes with March’s World Cross Country Championships in Uganda and July’s World U18 Championships in Kenya, Kalkaba is confident the rights will be given to Africa.
“People said that Africa could not host the World Cup in football, but we did it very successfully,” he added.
“President Coe is supporting the fact that Africa could host the World Championships.”
The 2019 and 2021 events have alraedy been awarded to Qatar and the United States respectively.
The next available championship to bid for is 2023. The decision on who will stage the 2025 finals will be taken in 2020.