National sprints coach Stephen Mwaniki has sounded the alarm over the steep qualification standards for the 2027 World Championships in Beijing, warning that East African nations risk fielding few, or in some cases none, in the sprint events.
Last week, World Athletics unveiled the qualification marks for the Beijing showpiece, sending ripples across the global athletics fraternity as athletes, coaches and federations dissected the tougher demands.
The new standards have been significantly tightened compared to the entry marks used for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
For the men’s 100m, the new qualification standard has been lowered to 9.95 seconds from Tokyo’s 10.00 mark.
In the women’s event, the benchmark now stands at 10.96, down from last year’s 11.07.
The 200m has also seen the bar raised sharply, with the men’s qualifying mark set at 20.07 from 20.16 for Tokyo 2025, while the women’s standard has moved to 22.45 from 22.57.
For the one-lap race, the men’s 400m entry standard has been slashed to 44.45 from 44.85, while the women’s mark drops to a demanding 50.00 from 50.75.
In a statement, World Athletics said the new Beijing standards were established following an extensive review of results from the 2025 season.
“The entry standards – and the target number of athletes in each discipline – have been set following detailed analysis of recent performance trends across the sport, including the increasing depth of results in many disciplines and the impact of advances in technology and preparation.”
However, Mwaniki believes the new benchmarks could lock out many athletes, particularly from emerging sprint nations.
“These new standards from World Athletics for Beijing are super high. I honestly cannot advocate for them,” Mwaniki said.
“If the men’s 100m is set at 9.95, then very few athletes will secure tickets to Beijing because, like in Kenya, only one athlete has run under 10 seconds.”
“You also look at our neighbours, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania, almost none have been able to break the 10-second barrier. World Athletics should really try to embrace everyone. They should at least have kept the entry standard at 10 seconds,” he added.
In Kenya, only Ferdinand Omanyala, Africa’s fastest man, has dipped beneath the coveted 10-second mark. Uganda has never produced a sub-10 sprinter, with the national record standing at 10.15 seconds, set by Tarsis Orogot in 2024.
Ethiopia and Tanzania are also yet to produce athletes who have broken the 10-second barrier. The picture is equally challenging in the women’s 100m. No Kenyan woman has ever run under 11 seconds, with the national record standing at 11.47, set by Eunice Kadogo at the 2015 All-Africa Games in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
For Uganda, the national women’s mark stands at 11.33, set by Jacent Nyamahunge in 2022; Ethiopia’s national mark is 12.10 (Fethiya Hassen, 2011) and Tanzania 11.63 (Nzaeli Kyomo, 1989).
In the 200m, Kenya’s men’s best remains 20.14, posted in 2015 by Kenyan-born American Carvin Nkanata, while the women’s national mark stands at 22.4, set by Joy Nakhumicha Sakari the same year. Mercy Oketch holds the Kenyan women’s 400m record at 50.14, set in 2025, while Samson Kitur’s longstanding men’s mark of 44.18 has stood untouched since 1992.
“How can we call it a World Championship if very few athletes meet the standards?” Mwaniki posed. With the qualification bar pushed to unprecedented levels, Mwaniki believes many hopefuls will be forced to rely on world rankings to secure their passage to Beijing.
“I think a majority of athletes will only make it to the championships through world rankings, which will also be very difficult,” he said.
In a statement, World Athletics underscored the expanded role of the world rankings pathway for Beijing 2027.
“The standards also reflect the expanded role of the world rankings as a qualification route, with most athletes expected to become eligible for selection through rankings rather than by achieving a single entry standard. The world rankings now place more weight on the results score and less on the placing score, to even the playing field for athletes with limited access to high-ranking competitions.”
