Staff Reporter.
Rwanda has been selected to host the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, cycling’s world governing body the UCI has confirmed.
It will be the first time an African nation will have hosted the event.
“I am delighted that we are heading to Kigali,” said UCI president David Lappartient.
The decision was announced following the UCI’s 190th Congress, at which Lappartient was re-elected for a second four-year term.
Earlier this year, Lappartient had indicted the Rwandan capital, and a rival Moroccan bid, were vying the for job of hosting the event in 2025.
The Rwanda Cycling Federation had announced on Thursday it had won the right to host the World Championships in a tweet that was deleted shortly afterwards.
“The Rwandan capital will provide a magnificent backdrop for the event’s first appearance on African soil,” Lappartient added after the news was confirmed.
The Rwandan president Paul Kagame was in Belgium on Thursday to meet Lappartient ahead of the hosting decision being made on the sidelines of the road worlds.
Kagame hosted FIFA president Gianni Infantino this year to open a regional development office for soccer’s world body in Kigali.
Rwanda recently renewed a $13 million annual shirt sleeve sponsorship of English Premier League club Arsenal through 2025, and Kagame criticized the tem on Twitter after losing the season-opening game.
The 2025 worlds in Kigali are also scheduled to be the venue for the UCI’s four-yearly elections.