Barcelona, Doha and Eugene - Candidate Cities for the 2019 IAAF World Championships

Published by the IAAF on April 15, 2014

Letters of intent from candidate cities interested in hosting a number of competitions of the IAAF World Athletics Series (WAS) 2017-2019 have been received by the IAAF.

Emphasising once more the universal reach and popularity of the sport of athletics, the IAAF Council, currently meeting in the Senegalese capital, were delighted to note that national Member Federations from five of the six continental Areas have confirmed themselves as candidates across the four IAAF World Athletics Series events involved.

The IAAF Council will decide the host cities during its next meeting in Monaco in November.

Prior to that the potential hosts will need to present detailed bid dossiers and will also receive feedback from an IAAF Evaluation team to help them deliver the best possible case for their cities.

The IAAF’s premier event is the biennial IAAF World Championships. With the hosts of the 2015 and 2017 editions already decided, the IAAF invited candidates for the 17th edition of the event which will take place in 2019. 

2019 IAAF World Championships

Candidates (alphabetical order by IAAF Member Federation) 

Qatar: Doha 
Spain: Barcelona 
USA: Eugene

First staged in 1983, the IAAF World Championships are the jewel of the IAAF World Athletics Series.

After the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, the IAAF World Championships are the third largest sporting event in the world based upon number of participating nations (over 200) and athletes (over 2000) and global TV audience (6 billion across over 200 territories accumulated across 9 days of competition).

The next two editions have already been awarded and are as follows: 2015 IAAF World Championships, Beijing, China (22 - 30 Aug 2015) 2017 IAAF World Championships, London, UK (5 - 13 Aug 2017)