Kavarna has a tiny population of 12,000 but as a host it already possesses major event experience with an annual marathon staged from 2009, which this year incorporated the Bulgarian championships, and on September 1 the First Balkan Half Marathon was held in the town as a test event for the IAAF race.

The men's and women's elite races will start and finish in the heart of the town, with the event being run on a compact course of three laps of 5 kilometres and one lap of 6.0975km, enabling spectators to closely follow the action.

The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships will be the second occasion that the Bulgarian Athletics Federation has staged an IAAF World Athletics Series event, as in 1990 the country's second largest city Plovdiv was the venue for the successful third edition of the IAAF World Junior Championships.

The coastal town and seaside resort in the Dobruja region of North-Eastern Bulgaria was first founded as a Greek settlement in the 5th century BC and is a rich archaeological treasure house that also has a modern infrastructure.

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