Scotstoun showcase! Visibility vital but be in no doubt: Games WILL inspire athletes, coaches and clubs

Saturday 25th July 2026

Image created by Bobby Gavin

By Peter Jardine

All roads lead to Scotstoun for key track and field action.

It has been quite some time since we opened a story with that particular phrase but it is a major improvement on ‘there will be no Commonwealth Games in 2026 or thereafter’.

Looking back less than two years ago, that was a Doomsday scenario alarmingly rooted in reality when prospective hosts Australia false-started.

Scotland and Glasgow stepped into the vacuum and listening to the thoughts of our 39 selected athletes over recent weeks, thank goodness for that.

Hopes and dreams will be realised over 12 sessions across six days at Scotstoun and be assured: athletes, coaches, clubs and training groups WILL be inspired.

Visibility is a massive issue in athletics in Scotland and the wider reach and stage of a home Commonwealth Games is very welcome.

Regardless of added media coverage (which is always welcome and useful) the audience across our platforms will stretch way beyond our membership and can attract new interest in the athletics.

It is too much to suggest our team members carry a burden of responsibility for the sport overall – it is almost completely an individual sport, after all.

But in truth we DO have the strong sense they understand our #SALtogether ethos whereby athletics in Scotland pulls in the same direction to be greater than the sum of the parts.

What we do works: Scottish athletes on podium 11 times out of 12

Photo by Craig Watson

‘The ‘see it to be it‘ aspect is really important at Glasgow 2026, I feel,’ said Laura Muir, preparing for her third Games and 12 years after her debut at Glasgow 2014.

‘We don’t get many chances to compete for Scotland at this kind of level. It is once every four years.

‘I try to be visible and I try to run in Britain or Scotland when I can. That’s really why I have done a few events in the cross country. I loved racing at Falkirk this year for the Lindsays National XC!

‘We want people – young athletes – at Scotstoun to see us. They know the clubs we all started out with and hopefully will feel inspired.’

That is legacy in action and there’s no doubt you will hear the L word over the next ten days.

Many will be sceptical on the impact but even within a team of fewer than 40 athletes, there are all sorts of legacy nuggets.

*Javelin equipment from Glasgow 2014 ended up in Arbroath and was soon picked by 2026 Decathlon entrant Joel McFarlane.

*Our 800m pick Jamie Phillips was aged eight in 2014 and came into the sport via a ‘Come and Try Athletics‘ day held by Kilmarnock Harriers directly linked to the Commonwealth Games that very summer

*Erin Wallace was in a selfie with Usain Bolt at Hampden after ‘the best week of my young life attending sports across the Games’ as a Giffnock North wannabe

*The track surfaces from Hampden and Lesser Hampden (the warm-up facility in 2014) were duly laid at Crownpoint in Glasgow and Grangemouth. Thousands of athletes have passed through those venues down the years.

Flashback to November 2014 and the Hampden track surface from Commonwealth Games is laid at Grangemouth

These are 2014-related and with a team effort – #SALtogether – this can happen again post-2026.

Already this summer we have seen seven young Scots compete at the European U18 Champs for GB and six picked for the World Juniors. Nine of those are with or were involved with our National Academy. The pathway in Scotland works.

World Record holder forthe Mile, Josh Kerr has been forceful on this theme. Josh was one of our very first athletes in the National Academy in 2015.

‘Glasgow 2026 is something we were dreaming about as kids,’ he said.

‘I was in a Scottish development squad (National Academy) talking about the Commonwealth Games all the time and that is the kind of stuff that you don’t forget.

‘Being part of Team Scotland is just everything I wanted to do when I got into the sport. You should never drift too far away from that and I never have. Growing up, I wanted to be standing on that start line with my Scotland vest on.

‘I mean, I love it. I put it up with . . . you’ve got the Olympics, the Worlds, and the Commonwealth Games. That’s the way I’ve always viewed it and if ever I get a call up for the Commonwealths I’d be the first one there.

‘Time goes by, and I’ve lived out in the States for a long time, but these are my roots and this is my blood and I just want to do myself proud and do Scotland proud.’

Decathlete Joel McFarlane, now based in the States but raised via a grass track in Arbroath, summed up the attitude of our athletes quite brilliantly.

‘Competing for Scotland at a Commonwealth Games in Scotland is a dream,’ he told us from Texas before flying home to prepare to compete.

‘This will be my World Cup final, my Super Bowl, my Ryder Cup.‘

Well, we did say he was a Combined Eventer . . .

Let the Games begin.