Athletics – along with swimming – is one of the core sports at the Commonwealth Games. Indeed, recent changes to the structure of future game have said that those two sports are the only two sports that hosts are required to offer – all other sports can be tailored to the choice of the host venue with agreement of the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Given the importance of athletics therefore, it is a shame that this edition will not necessarily see as many of the top athletes available as it could have. The decision of World Athletics to have the re-arranged World Championships finish only 10 days before the athletic program started here has meant a sizeable number of withdrawals – whether by choice to manage their workload or by injury – depriving us of the chance to see the likes of Kirani James, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, Dina Asher-Smith, Neeraj Chopra and many others. It’s a shame that better planning could not have gone into planning the calendar to avoid this clash.
Despite these absences, there will still be plenty of world class athletes showing up in Birmingham. On the track on the men’s side Akani Simbine looks to defend his 100m crown, whilst the 1500m final is likely to feature many of the protagonists of the World and Olympic finals, including the Scottish pair of Josh Kerr and newly-minted World Champion Jake Wightman. In the field, expect fireworks in the Javelin from the likes of Anderson Peters and Keshorn Walcott, as well as Tom Walsh in the Shot and Sreeshanker in the Long Jump.
On the women’s side, we may be missing the World Champion in the 100m, but we do have the (double) Olympic Champion in Elaine Thompson-Herath, as well as the new World Record Holder in the 100m hurdles in Nigeria’s Tobi Amusen. As on the men’s sides expect some high class races in the middle distances, with the likes of Mary Moraa, Keely Hodgkinson and Laura Muir all entering these championships carrying world medals won at those games.
In the field, expect a strong showing from Australia, who will fancy their chances of High Jump medals through Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers, as well as in the Javelin from Kelsey-Lee Barber and the Pole Vault from Nina Kennedy. England would normally have considered their chances of Pole Vault glory to be high with Olympic medallist Holly Bradshaw but she enters these championships having had something of an injury hit year, much similar to that of former Heptathlon World Champion Katerina Johnson-Thompson. Still, it would be foolish to write either of them off entirely.
Ian's World Of Sports 