Yorkshire's 23 athletes to follow at the Commonwealth Games

Scotland may have rescued the 2026 edition after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out due to rising costs, but the future of the old Empire Games faces a pivotal week. The sports almost halved in number is a challenge in itself, but its absence from the wall-to-wall coverage provided by the BBC will mean the Commonwealth Games movement is in danger of shunning the interest of the regular punter as it’s tucked away on TNT Sports.

Some of the big names like Keely Hodgkinson are giving it a miss, but that is nothing the Commonwealths haven’t faced, and overcome, before.

Tasked with helping restore a bit of faith in the old format are English swimming superstar Adam Peaty-Ramsay, freshly-minted Scottish mile record holder Josh Kerr and Jamaican sprint queen Shericka Jackson.

There are also 21 Yorkshire athletes to follow over the coming nine days, all at different points in their careers. For some the Commonwealth Games are a stepping stone, others the pinnacle, and a few are looking for one last hurrah in front of a home crowd.

Let’s a take a look at them.

​Athletics

The blue riband athletics events take place at Scotstoun Stadium. The big draw for White Rose eyes will be the 800m which sees two of our finest go head-to-head in the heats on Tuesday morning, semi-final Thursday and, hopefully, a final on Saturday night.

One man who should be in that race is Max Burgin of Halifax, one of Yorkshire’s great hopes in Glasgow. The 24-year-old has been building towards delivering on the biggest stage for a number of years. Finally free of injuries and with world and Olympic finals in his experience locker, plus a Diamond League win in Rabat earlier this season, he has to be targeting gold in Glasgow. Kenya’s world champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi will have something to say about that, though but anything less than a podium will be disappointing.

He could line up against Alex Botterill, one of three members of the City of York team who made it to the Games. Getting out of the heats will be the target for the 26-year-old. His clubmate Scott Lincoln, 33, has dominated the British shot putt scene for over a decade, and made his major international breakthrough at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham four years ago when he won bronze. Now training in Australia, the former brickie from Northallerton will expect to be on the podium again.

The final member of the York trio is Lucy Hadaway, another 26-year-old debutant in the long jump. A part-time athlete who devotes most of her life to being a physiotherapist, gaining experience is her goal in Glasgow.

Sheffield’s Louie Hinchliffe is the man to watch in the men’s 100m.Two years ago this unknown sprinter became an overnight sensation, clocking under 10 seconds in America and then taking that form to the Paris Olympics where he reached the semi-final and won a bronze in the 4x100m relay.

As quickly as he rose he fell away, leaving Carl Lewis and the University of Houston for Middlesbrough’s Richard Kilty. But he is now back with Lewis hoping to rekindle the old magic.

​Cycling

Circle the early evening of Thursday, July 30, in the diary, when Yorkshire could celebrate a hatful of medals in the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome. That is the night when familiar names and new faces converge in the team pursuit and sprint finals.

Katy Marchant of Leeds is an athlete who gets better with age. A decade ago she was a surprise bronze medallist in the Olympic sprint in Rio. Two years ago she was an Olympic gold medallist in the team sprint having only given birth to her son two years earlier. A Commonwealth bronze medallist in that discipline in 2018, she is back for more in Glasgow.

Great Ayton’s Charlie Tanfield is heading to his third Commonwealth Games as part of the men’s team pursuit squad having medalled on both the Gold Coast and in Birmingham.

And Huddersfield’s Maddie Leech, a bronze medallist in the team pursuit when still a teenager four years years ago in Birmingham, is back for more alongside another up-and-comer in Abi Miller from York, an 18-year-old making her major championship debut.

And for all she has achieved in her Paralympic career, Leeds’ Kadeena Cox makes her Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow in the C4-5 para-cycling events, the individual sprint of which is on that bumper Thursday evening in what promises to be a red-hot velodrome. She could also contest the time-trial on the final Sunday.

Swimming

Two years ago, Max Litchfield would have been forgiven for saying to hell with swimming. He had just finished fourth in his third successive Olympic 400m individual medley final and cut a tearful, devastated figure after another medal had eluded him. But the 31-year-old from Pontefract has carried on defiantly shaking his fist at the swimming Gods to return to the Commonwealth Games 12 years after his first.

Yorkshire’s other swimmers at the Tollcross International Pool are debutants, and two from the City of Leeds club. Freestyle specialist Leah Schlosshan, 21, a former European junior champion and ready to make her mark on the senior stage.

Gabe Shepherd of Harrogate found out he was headed to the Commonwealth Games while sitting his A-level exams, and another 18-year-old, Gabrielle Idle-Beavers comes from Barnsley. Second in the 100m breaststroke at the British Championships, she is headed to University of Kentucky on a scholarship after this summer. In the para-swimming, a third 18-year-old in Evie Lambert of Huddersfield makes her Commonwealth Games debut in the SB9 category.

And visually-impaired siblings Astrid, 17, and Ursula, 14, Carroll represent Scotland and England respectively in the S13 freestyle events.

Gymnastics

If Max Burgin is a medal contender for Yorkshire on the track, his fellow Halifax athlete Luke Whitehouse is a multiple medal contender on the floor, the vault, the pommel and the rings.

Whitehouse, 23, who represents Leeds Gymnastics Club, is a triple European champion on the floor exercise who could sweep up in Glasgow, starting in the team final on Friday night, and continuing in the individual all-around on Sunday. Monday afternoon, for the men’s floor final, is his time to really shine.

Para-powerlifting

Four years ago, Lottie McGuinness of Harrogate went to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as a spectator. Now she heads to Glasgow harbouring genuine aspirations of winning a medal in the -61kg category which took place yesterday afternoon.

Since that watershed moment in Birmingham that left her determined to kick on in her career, the Harrogate Ladies College pupil has been to a Paralympics where she finished fourth and broke the British record.​

Basketball

Yorkshire is represented by two hoopers on the basketball court. Georgia Gayle is one of the biggest names of the 5-on-5 scene having been a leading light in Sheffield Hatters for many seasons and also a Great Britain international, but she has translated those gifts onto the 3x3 halfcourt, and makes her debut at the Commonwealth Games.

In wheelchair basketball, Pontefract-based Tom Harvey, 22, makes his debut for the men’s 3x3 team having won a national title with club side Sheffield Steelers already this year.

​Netball

No other sport needs the Commonwealth Games quite like netball, which does not have a place in the Olympic Games.

Eight years ago, England’s Roses made history with gold on the Gold Coast. Nat Metcalf was part of that team but injury on the eve of the Games has robbed her of a third appearance.

Imogen Allison of Huddersfield, therefore, flies the flag for Yorkshire, the former Yorkshire Jets product will be hoping to do better than the disappointing fourth place England achieved in the title defence in Birmingham four years ago.

Judo

And finally, watch out for 20-year-old Charlie Ayre of Middlesbrough and Tees Valley Judo Club. Ayre won the first senior medals of his career this year. He goes in the men’s -60kg next Friday. By which time, he could be one of the many new sporting stars from Yorkshire to have taken their next step on the road to greatness.