Column by Lyn Johnson
In almost perfect timing, London joins the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where Kerr and Hodgkinson will swap Team GB strips with Team Scotland and Team England, respectively.
Read: Josh Kerr breaks a world mile record that has stood for more than a generation – Runner Tribe
Kerr will once again go to the mile – replacing 1,500 that Birmingham 2022 winner Olly Hoare will not be the Games record holder forever. Although the London Mill DL field includes the likes of Jared Nogus – currently one of the four men alongside El Guerrouj, Noah Ngeni and Jakob Ingebrigtsen to break 3:44 – Kerr will now face Cam Myers, Hoare and fellow Scot Jake Whiteman. Winning the Glasgow Mile won’t be any easier than winning the Birmingham 1500.
There has never been a women’s mile at the Commonwealth Games. The 1,500 meter race was only introduced in 1970, the year the Games became metric. Abby Caldwell, Claudia Hollingsworth and Jess Hall will all look to record the opening games. But first, they have to win. Not an easy task with the likes of Georgia Hunter Bell.
There are too many events to give a full preview here, but one I’m looking forward to is the women’s high jump in which Australian stars Nicola Olleslagers and Eleanor Patterson will face off with defending champion Lamara Distin of Jamaica, Morgan Lake of England and others.
Patterson won that event – in Glasgow – as a teenager in 2014. Oleslagers took bronze four years later on the Gold Coast. But Distin upset Patterson to win in Birmingham last time out just three weeks after the Australian claimed the world champion title in Eugene. Patterson returned to the two-meter level this season. If conditions in Glasgow are good – just because it’s summer doesn’t mean it’s going to be warm! -It may take two meters or more to win.
Athletics competitions begin on July 27 and end on August 1.
