GCGA chair Angela Stuart has confirmed that they are hoping to select competitors in four sports – athletics, swimming, indoor bowls and boxing – out of the 10 available at Glasgow 2026, which runs from 23 July to 2 August as a scaled-down alternative to previous editions.
However, with comparatively few athletes from these sports performing in and around the A standards, the GCGA will again be considering nominations of development athletes to fill their allocated places.
‘There are different opinions, but 20 athletes, it’s not a lot,’ she said.
‘The processes of the Games and Commonwealth Sport do change. We are in the era of changing to a more scaled-down Games.’
Wary of potentially losing spots for future editions if they do not use all 20, she added: ‘We want to preserve the number of athlete places that we are allocated.
‘Some of those spots could be used by sports for development of their athletes – they may not be at the top of their game at the time of going but are looking forward to the next Games in 2030. This could be preparation for them.
‘It’s our preference at the moment to use those 20 places that we’ve been given.’
Alongside the sport-specific managers and officials, Karina Jackson and Peter Jory will be supporting the athletes in Glasgow.
Star shooter Jory has been appointed chef de mission and accomplished cyclist Jackson will be assisting him as general team manager.
Although the comparatively late confirmation of host has left selectors playing catch-up, Stuart feels the current time is ‘very exciting’.
‘We are very pleased that our processes have moved on from where they were earlier in the year,’ she added. ‘Everybody is working hard behind the scenes. After that, we are hoping that our final selection will be in March – there’s not a lot of time now.’
Stuart also has one eye on the centenary Commonwealths in 2030, for which Abuja (Nigeria) and Ahmedabad (India) had stepped forward as potential host cities by the 31 August deadline.
Ahmedabad is currently the recommended bid and could be confirmed as hosts at Commonwealth Sport’s general assembly on 26 November. Looking at future Games, Stuart expects a recovery from the 10-sport programme in Glasgow but still a scaled-down Games compared to previous years, in line with a Commonwealth Sport roadmap suggesting 15 sports per edition.
‘I think more than 10, but not as many as 18, sports is the popular medium going forwards that everyone’s looking for.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.