No Scotstoun, no party. If athletics had been made to hang around impatiently for the first few days of these Commonwealth Games while most of the other disciplines enjoyed the spotlight, then it would prove to be worth the wait once they finally got up and running.
The home of the Glasgow Warriors has been transformed into a track and field venue for the week, with two steep temporary stands thrown up at either end to boost the capacity to around 10,000. That’s five times fewer than packed into Hampden at the previous Glasgow Games in 2014 but those in place at the rebranded EDF Scotstoun Stadium — with its freshly-installed ‘mondo’ track — certainly made their voices heard on an exciting opening night that will surely soar to a crescendo as the week progresses.
Those huddled together in the drizzle under the roofless new stands were made to wait a while before they had a Scottish medallist to cheer. That came in the men’s T20 1,500m final when paralympic world champion Ben Sandilands followed up that Paris success by taking gold with a season best time of 3:57:25. Team-mate Steven Bryce took the bronze, while the third Scot in the final, Owen Miller, was sixth.
This was meant to be Eilish McColgan’s big night. The 10,000m champion in Birmingham four years ago had been lined up to defend her title only for a foot injury to force her out of the competition just days before. That left the way clear for Megan Keith to fly the flag for Scotland on her Commonwealth Games debut as she took the acclaim of the crowd that included her 100-year-old grandfather, Murray, back on familiar territory as a Glasgow Warriors fan.
Keith stuck gamely with the pack until about five laps to go when Kenyan Diana Wanza launched the first breakaway that splintered the chasers. Keith ended up finishing ninth in a race won by Australian Rose Davies, who hauled back Wanza to take the gold. Keith cut a disappointed figure come the end but will have a chance to atone when she runs in the 5,000m on Thursday.
‘It was pretty tumultuous out there this evening,’ said the Inverness athlete. ‘I knew it was likely to be slow at the start and the surges were something I thought naturally I could handle. But I think those early surges just took more out of me than I thought they did unfortunately.
Ben Sandilands won a gold medal, Steven Bryce a bronze, in the T20 1,500m final at Scotstoun
Scotland’s Megan Keith was disappointed to finish ninth in a 10,000m final won by Rose Davies
Jemma Reekie is congratulated for making it safely through to the 800m semi-finals
‘My legs just turned to something which didn’t move very fast. So it just became survival to the end. I mean, it didn’t look like it, but I was racing to win, just like everyone else out there. I’m really disappointed I couldn’t do better.’
This was a poignant evening for another Team Scotland athlete. Hammer thrower Chris Bennett elected to come out of semi-retirement for one last crack at a home Games at a venue where he first ran laps of the old track as a kid almost 25 years ago. At one point it looked as if he would depart with his first major medal with a throw of 69.48m before finishing fifth. But there were no regrets after shedding almost six stone to get fit for his finale.
‘That’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a Commie Games and I enjoyed it,’ said the Glaswegian. ‘I thought I might have had a chance to get a medal and then I got a little bit excited on the last throw so I’ve technically finished on a foul which is not great.
‘It was fun and it was emotional but that’s it. I’ll wake up tomorrow and I’m a normal unemployed human being now.
‘Did I win a medal? No. Do I care? Probably not. It would have been nice to do it. Although I’d have had to do a lap of honour and I don’t know if I’d have made it round.’
There was success in the women’s 800m first round when two out of the three Scottish athletes made it safely through to the semi-finals. Jemma Reekie was the best of the lot, trailing England’s Georgia Hunter-Bell (one of the favourites for the title with Olympic champion Keely Hogkinson sitting this event out) in second place in the third heat with a time of 2:03:09.
Kilbarchan’s Reekie is still trying to relive the high of her fourth-placed finish at the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but was content to have made it safely through to the next stage.
‘The semis are going to be really tough but getting through that round is my next goal,’ she said. ‘I haven’t made a final in a long time so I want to be back in there again.’
The lure of competing in front of a home crowd as many times as possible was also what swayed Erin Wallace to compete in this event rather than the mile. The Glaswegian finished strongly in the fourth heat to take third place with a time of 2:03:15.
Mena Scatchard was the unfortunate one to miss out. The Yorkshire-born athlete went out strong and led at the bell but faded and finished fifth, missing out on a place in the semi-finals by an agonising 0.06 of a second.
In the morning session, Stephen Mackenzie qualified for the long jump final with a leap of 7.75m, while Angela McAuslan-Kelly reached the hammer final with a best throw of 60.59m.
