Editor’s note: Stuart Weir has spent a week in Glasgow, Scotland. This past week, our friend was writing for RunBlogRun and his other media partners, covering a Commonwealth Games 2026. Stuart has a great sense of humor, and sometimes you see it in his columns. His humor is present in this one! Thanks, Stuart!
A fitting Finale
Six days of Track and Field at the Commonwealth Games came to an end on Saturday evening. Glasgow has only had two years to prepare for the games, which were originally planned to take place in Australia. In contrast to the conversion of 50.000 capacity soccer stadium, Hampden Park, for track and field at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, this time track and field took place in the much smaller Scotstoun stadium, capacity 11,000.
The final evening program was highlighted by the men’s and women’s mile but also included a men’s 800 and 5000m, three field events, three relays and two para-athlete events. The three relays were male and female 4X100 and a mixed 4X400. There were no single-sex 4X400 relays in the program. I don’t know why they are not included; my best guess is that a lot of the smaller Commonwealth countries would not have 4 athletes of the requisite standard.
There was an excellent men’s pole-vault competition which seemed to go on all evening, unbothered by those athletes who kept running laps past them. As an aside, there was action wherever you were sitting. At the top end of the stadium, you had that absorbing pole-vault competition; on the back straight, you had the beaming Jazmin Sawyers winning the long jump. At the other end of the stadium you had the first bend in the mile, which, as some athletes had said beforehand, came very quickly and could catch you out. On the home straight you had all the exciting finishes.
Going back to the pole vault, Kurtis Marschall (Australia) won with 5.85 – an impressive height on a cold, windy evening. Your correspondent was wearing a shirt, sweater and zip-jacket. Kyle Rademeyer (South Africa) got the nod over England’s Owen Heard with both clearing 5.70 for silver.
Mackenzie Little won the women’s javelin with 61.88. Matthew Kipsang won the 5000m in 13:23.61. Navasky Anderson won the 800m in 1:45.33, showing that his spectacular dive to claim the last place in the semi-final paid dividends. England’s Ben Pattison beat Alex Botterill (who had beaten him in the semi) by 0.01 of a second but was still 0.13 secs from bronze. To rapturous applause, Melanie Woods won the one-lap wheelchair race for Scotland in 56.43.
Jamaica won the mixed 4X400 relay and the women’s 4X100 while Australia just held off
Canada and Andre de Grasse in the men’s sprint relay.
In the final event of the night, there was an Australian clean sweep in the women’s 1609m race – sometimes called the mile. Abbey Caldwell won in 4:39.31 from Jess Hull and Claudia Hollingsworth. RunBlogRun is trying to confirm the rumor that Jess Hull is not racing today, having run 4 times in the past 5 days!
Geoff Wightman, the stadium announcer, posted on social media at 11.10pm that he was going strong with still a few medal presentations to finish. Don’t tell my editor, but your correspondent had done a runner after the final race.
See you in four years in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
