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WELSH ATHLETICS FIELDS STRONG LINE-UP AT GLASGOW COMMONWEALTH GAMES
19/06/2026 00:00, In Blog / Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games - Latest News /
A star-studded athletics contingent will represent Wales at the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, it has been revealed today.
As Team Wales announced a 114 strong team across 10 sports, 18 track and field athletes were named.
Between them, the athletes named today can already boast three golds, a silver and three bronze from previous Commonwealth Games while 10 athletes in the squad will be making their debut.
James Williams, Welsh Athletics CEO, said:
The Commonwealth Games is a very special and significant event in our calendar. It’s the only opportunity that our athletes compete as Wales at the very highest level. On the track and field in Glasgow, Wales can look forward to supporting an incredibly strong team. Among them are some very familiar faces like Aled Davies, Olivia Breen, Jeremiah Azu and Adele Nicoll.
We’re also really looking forward to watching 10 of our athletes – that’s more than 50% of the athletics squad – make their first-ever Commonwealth Games experience and we can’t wait for Wales to get behind them. In Glasgow, we will see our largest number of para athletes invited to compete at a Commonwealth Games which really demonstrates the strength of Para Athletics here in Wales.
Williams also paid tribute to the support of grassroots athletics across Wales and the National Lottery:
So many clubs across Wales have helped shape Welsh athletes and they continue to develop the next generation of talent. Also, the players of the National Lottery are our biggest supporter – from helping our top athletes to train and compete to buying new equipment for clubs and investing in training for community coaches.
Three-time Paralympic Champion Aled Davies will be defending his Commonwealth Games F42-44 discus title in Glasgow’s Scotstoun Stadium. It will be his third Commonwealth Games and the (age) will surely relish a return to Glasgow where he won silver at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, golden girl Olivia Breen is gearing up for her fourth Commonwealth Games and is aiming to add to her tally of two gold medals and a bronze. In Birmingham four years ago, she stormed to gold in the 100m. And back in 2018 at the Gold Coast Games, she took gold in the T38 long jump and bronze in the T38 100m.
Breen explained:
Competing in a Welsh vest has been the biggest honour of my life at the last three Commonwealth Games. To have another opportunity to do the same means the world to me.
100m sprinter Jeremiah Azu will also be a leading figure in Wales’ track and field line up. He made his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham four years ago as a 21-year-old and finished fifth.
Since then, he has won bronze at the Olympic Games in Paris in the 4 × 100 metres relay and has become the first Welshman to dip under 10 seconds in the 100 metres, achieving a PB of 9.97. In 2025, he won the 60m titles at the 2025 European Indoor Championships and World Indoor Championships.
Azu said:
It’s always an incredible honour to represent Wales, and I’m absolutely delighted to be selected for the Commonwealth Games. I was just 21 years old when I competed at Birmingham 2022, and that experience played a huge role in my development as an athlete. To have the opportunity to represent Wales again four years later, with the experience I've had since, makes it even more special.
With the Games feeling almost like a home championship, I can’t wait to get out there, compete in front of the fans and do my best to make Wales proud.
1500m runner Melissa Courtney-Bryant and discus thrower Harrison Walsh are also ones to watch, having both claimed bronze medals at previous Games. Walsh joins Aled Davies in the throwing circle along with a talented crop of throwers coming through which includes Paralympian Funmi Oduwaiye, Winter Olympic bobsleigh star Adele Nicoll, Amber Simpson and, the youngest of the crop, Ellie Bowen, who has just turned 17.
But perhaps one of the biggest stories is Jake Heyward. As a junior, he beat Steve Cram’s and Seb Coe’s age group records. He made the Olympic final in 2021 and made his Commonwealth debut a year later. But his journey to the top was then thwarted by injury, which required double Achilles surgery. But after gaining the Commonwealth Games qualifying time earlier this year, he said:
After almost two years without running a single step, 1328 days since my last race, running 3:34.1 is confirmation that my time away from the track is behind me.
With 10 of the athletics line up making their Commonwealth Games debuts this summer, names to note include Isabelle Boffey in the 800m who reached the semi-finals of the World Indoors last year. Likewise, heptathlete Abigail Pawlett will be eager to earn her spot on the podium.
Elsewhere in the stadium in the red vest will be Justin Davies in the 800m, Charlotte Henrich in the 400m, Cari Hughes in the 3000m steeplechase, Ava Lloyd in the mile and pole vaulter Thomas Walley.
TEAM WALES
Sprints
Jeremiah Azu | 100m
Charlotte Henrich | 400m
Endurance
Isabelle Boffey | 800m
Justin Davies | 800m
Jake Heyward | Mile
Ava Lloyd | Mile
Melissa Courtney-Bryant | Mile & 5000m
Cari Hughes | 3000m Steeplechase
Jumps & Multi Events
Abigail Pawlett | Heptathlon
Olivia Breen | T38 Long Jump & T38 100m
Thomas Walley | Pole Vault
Throws
Harrison Walsh | Discus
Aled Davies OBE | F42 Discus
Funmi Oduwaiye | F44 Discus
Bree Cronin | F44 Discus
Adele Nicoll | Shot Put
Ellie Bowen | Seated Shot Put
Amber Simpson | Hammer