Commonwealth
Games

One Championship, 74 Flags

The Commonwealth Games are a multi-sport championship held every four years for the nations and territories of the Commonwealth, and athletics has been on the programme at every edition since the first, in Hamilton, Canada, in 1930. The Commonwealth itself has 56 member states; 74 teams took part in Glasgow in 2026, because dependent territories such as the Isle of Man enter under their own flags.

The detail that surprises people from outside: there is no Great Britain team. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland enter separately, so athletes who share a relay baton at the Olympic Games and the World Championships line up against each other here. Australia finished top of the athletics table in 2018, 2022 and 2026.

The Games were also the first major multi-sport event to put para athletes inside their national teams. Para events appeared as exhibitions in Victoria in 1994; from Manchester 2002 they were full medal events, with para athletes on the same teams and the same medal table. Glasgow 2026 had 47 para medal events across six sports, a record for the Games.

Two Races That Changed the Sport

Two of the most famous middle-distance races ever run were Commonwealth finals. On 7 August 1954 in Vancouver, Roger Bannister of England and John Landy of Australia met in the mile, three months after Bannister had first broken four minutes in Oxford and a few weeks after Landy had taken the world record to 3:58.0 in June. Bannister passed Landy on the last bend and won in 3:58.8; Landy was second, and for the first time two men had run under four minutes in the same race. Bannister died in 2018 and Landy, later Governor of Victoria, in 2022.

Twenty years later, on 2 February 1974 in Christchurch, Filbert Bayi of Tanzania led the 1500 m from the gun and never gave it up. He won in 3:32.2, a world record that took almost a second off Jim Ryun's 3:33.1 of 1967, and John Walker of New Zealand, second, also ran inside the old mark. Bayi's time stayed the Games record for 48 years, until Oliver Hoare of Australia won in Birmingham in 2022 in 3:30.12.

Twenty-Three Games, Never in Africa

The Games move every four years, and the chart below pins each edition to the region that held it. Canada staged the first one and four more; the United Kingdom and Australia with New Zealand have held eight each; Asia two, in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Delhi in 2010. The 1942 Games, awarded to Montreal, and the 1946 Games, awarded to Cardiff, were cancelled because of the Second World War.

The empty row is Africa. Johannesburg was awarded the 1934 Games, which moved to London. Durban was awarded the 2022 Games and lost them in March 2017, after the organisers failed to meet deadlines including financial guarantees; Birmingham took them on in December 2017. South Africa's athletes have still done plenty of winning at the Games — the story is in our history of athletics in South Africa.

Cost has shaped the recent editions too. Victoria, in Australia, cancelled its plans for 2026 on 18 July 2023 because of rising cost estimates, and Glasgow stepped in with a smaller Games: 23 July to 2 August 2026, ten sports instead of the 19 of Birmingham, four venues and hotels instead of an athletes' village. Athletics and para athletics were guaranteed a place and ran for six days at Scotstoun Stadium. The 2030 Games, the centenary edition, were awarded to Ahmedabad in India at the Commonwealth Sport General Assembly on 26 November 2025, with athletics among the first sports confirmed.

Uganda's 10,000 Metres

For East African distance running the Commonwealth Games are a second championship each cycle, and one country has made the men's 10,000 m its own. Uganda won it at every Games from 2006 to 2022. Moses Kipsiro took the 5000 and 10,000 m in Delhi in 2010; Joshua Cheptegei did the same on the Gold Coast in 2018, winning the 10,000 m in a Games record of 27:19.62 from Canada's Mo Ahmed and breaking the 27:45.39 that had stood since 2002.

In Birmingham in 2022, with Cheptegei absent, Jacob Kiplimo won the 10,000 m in 27:09.19, another Games record, ahead of Kenya's Daniel Ebenyo and Kibiwott Kandie, and added the 5000 m. Kenya's distance runners, and its kit, are in our history of athletics in Kenya, and Uganda's in the history of athletics in Uganda.

Glasgow 2026, Event by Event

The most recent Games gave the sprints a new name. In heavy rain at Scotstoun, Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon won the 100 m in 9.83, a national record and a Games record, taking the mark Ato Boldon set in Kuala Lumpur in 1998; Lachlan Kennedy of Australia was second in 9.85, an Oceanian record. On 31 July Sinesipho Dambile ran 19.96 to win the 200 m, the first Commonwealth 200 m title for South Africa.

Australia won 34 athletics medals, 12 of them gold, and topped the athletics table for a third Games in a row. Rose Davies won the 10,000 m and then the 5000 m in 14:44.53, Kurtis Marschall took his third straight pole vault title with a Games record of 5.85 m, and the men's 4 × 100 m relay won Australia's first gold in that event since 1974. Josh Kerr's mile, in front of a home crowd, closed the meeting. In the field, Rumesh Tharanga of Sri Lanka threw 89.75 m to beat India's Neeraj Chopra in the javelin, and Lindon Victor of Grenada won the decathlon with 8096 points ahead of Canada's Damian Warner.

National Kit, Without the Union Flag

The house rule for reading any meeting: championships are raced in federation kit, and the Diamond League and the big marathons in sponsor kit. The Commonwealth Games are a championship, so the vests carry national colours, but with one twist. A British athlete who wears the kit of Great Britain & Northern Ireland at the Olympics and the European Championships changes into an England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland uniform here. The Great Britain pieces in our archive, covered in the history of athletics in Great Britain, are Olympic-cycle and World Championship issue, not Commonwealth Games kit.

Distance federation · in the archiveNike Uganda Olympic Team Pro Elite 2024 Polo ShirtAthlete-issued Nike kit of the Uganda Olympic team, Paris 2024. Uganda won the men's 10,000 m at every Commonwealth Games from 2006 to 2022.120,00 €View piece →

For the African and other Commonwealth federations the kit is the same national team issue they wear everywhere else. The rail below holds athlete-issued pieces from four of the Commonwealth federations in the archive: Great Britain, including its 2024 Paralympic team, Kenya and South Africa, with Uganda above.