You can already imagine the celebrations if Alastair Chalmers gets back on the podium at Glasgow 2026.
Very nearly four years have passed since he won Guernsey’s first-ever Commonwealth Games track and field medal, truly launching himself and his island onto the map of elite athletics.
Chalmers is now 26, has experienced the pinnacle of global sport – the Olympics – and only weeks ago welcomed his son into the world.
But he is in no hurry to forget that magical medal moment at Birmingham 2022.
‘That was definitely the best moment in my athletic career,’ he said.
‘Back then, yeah, 22 years old and I’d been so ill and I wasn’t even going to turn up, and I did, made that final – just – and then anything can happen really.
‘The reception from the home crowd was just next level, 10/10, and to have all you guys and my family and my friends ... it was just outrageously loud and it was just awesome.
‘For Guernsey it makes the story even cooler, doesn’t it? Everyone’s talking about it and I still hear to this day how awesome that day was.
‘So it’s definitely right up there and hopefully I can repeat it.’
An even stronger and more experienced athlete now than at Birmingham 2022, Chalmers desires another medal – perhaps even one of another colour.
If so, the international media are in for another treat.
Chalmers’ rapturous celebrations have been widely circulated, making him a favourite, and the Sarnian would not have it any other way.
‘I think it happens a lot where good athletes cross the line and it’s a bit of smiles and a bit of happy behaviour, but they’re not showing the real emotion of what it is.
‘I think you can get lost along the way, and I think what a lot of good athletes I know do is they just get caught up with the next thing and they don’t live in the moment unless it’s like an Olympic gold medal or an Olympic medal.
‘They kind of forget how special world, European and Commonwealth medals really are.
‘And for me to run for Guernsey against Jamaica, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, I look so out of place with that bib on, so it makes it cool and it makes it a rare experience.’
Chalmers lines up for that opening heat on 27 July, but nine days prior, he will face a moment of truth at the London Athletics Meet.
He has already set out London’s own Diamond League for an assault on his current personal best of 48.31sec.
That could mean gunning for Kriss Akabusi’s British record, 47.82, if everything comes together.
‘I know I’m in PB shape. I’ve just got to put a race together to show that.
‘I’ve beaten guys who have been running 48.1 kind of thing, so I’ve just got to really do a load of work up to London, go run a PB in London.
‘And then if I run a PB in London, I’m going to be in that shape come the Commonwealth Games.’
In the aftermath of his sixth UK title, Chalmers sat a very healthy 15th on the World Athletics rankings, together with a highly promising third in the Commonwealth nations.
Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel looks like the man to beat in the Commonwealth, being a low-47sec. runner, with Botswana’s Kemorena Tisang ranked a single place ahead of the Sarnian.
Chalmers is not taking the Commonwealths heats for granted, either, and three of his closest Great Britain rivals will be in the mix.
England have named Seamus Derbyshire, Josh Faulds and Jake Minshull within their 83-strong athletics team.
So what is his mental approach for the task at hand?
‘Believe – and you’ve got to be confident, you’ve got to run your own race.
‘But I love those kind of moments and I thrive under them.
‘So I think if I get in that final in the shape I know I’m in, it’s going to happen.’
Yet, in a slightly different world, the 2026 Commonwealths might not have happened at all.
Chalmers has commended 2014 hosts Glasgow’s decision to take the reins officially just two years ago, following the Australian state of Victoria’s withdrawal.
There have been sacrifices and, indeed, athletics at Glasgow 2026 will look somewhat different to that of Birmingham 2022.
It will not use Hampden Park, a worthy challenger to the 30,000-capacity Alexander Stadium that buzzed during Birmingham, but rather Scotstoun.
The home of Glasgow Warriors can not match the capacity of either venue, accommodating nearer 10,000 spectators.
But the Commonwealths’ future now looks more secure with a full-scale event lined up at Amdavad 2030.
‘Just happy that Glasgow stepped in and put it together.
‘I know not everyone can be involved because of certain events being taken out, which is a real shame, but the good thing is that it’s still going ahead – it’s not being cut off.
‘And for India, we’ll hopefully be back to 100%, where everyone can get involved again.’
Chalmers will chase up the Commonwealths with a big GB outing on home soil.
He will return to Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium for August’s European Championships, in which he also has medal ambitions.
That may be easier said than done. He sees a European medal as even harder to achieve than a Commonwealths one, but also expects that behind Norway’s world record-holding Karsten Warholm and Germany’s in-form Emil Agyekum, he will be in that race for third.
‘Got to get that Commonwealth Games medal for Guernsey and then it’s all about that confidence and motivation, isn’t it?
‘I’ll get that and then I can really push on and try and do it for Great Britain.’
But he has reiterated how much representing Guernsey in front of thousands means to him.
‘As cool as it is always running for Great Britain, Guernsey moments will always be my fondest and my favourite memories.
‘So yeah, definitely excited, and the right thing’s been done and I think a lot of people are looking forward to it.’
Chalmers is now a firm fixture of international 400m hurdling – and what a time for it.
For a period after lockdown, he would line up clear favourite for the UK Championships.
But after losing to Tyri Donovan in 2025, and seeing several other emerging athletes vying for his throne, he argued he was the underdog at this year’s championships.
The event has also exploded internationally, with performances from the 2020s dominating both the women’s and men’s all-time lists.
Topping the pile is Warholm’s revolutionary performance from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – hosted in late 2021 due to Covid restrictions – where he set the world record of 45.94.
‘The whole state of 400m hurdling is the best it’s ever been, globally, in Europe and of course in the United Kingdom – it’s been so hard and definitely pushes me more.
‘A few years ago when I was younger, there was maybe one other guy that you’d be fighting against, but now you’re in that final and there’s four guys who could beat you and it’s great.’
In turn, he feels that this has made it more of a spectator event, drawing in those seeking a ‘big scrap’.
‘You don’t want one guy miles and miles ahead ... you want to be watching it like last year, where it was so close between me and Tyri, and then this year, me and Jake.
‘It was amazing. So yeah, it definitely pushes me more because I don’t want to lose to any of those guys.
‘They’re my rivals, more so than anyone in Europe or the world.
‘Those are the guys that I need to beat if I want to go and get European medals or Commonwealth Games medals.’
Chalmers is also giving directly back to 400m hurdling in Guernsey, helping coach Nic Ackermann after he succeeded him as Island Games champion this summer.
Ackermann’s current PB is 55.79, which puts Chalmers’ performances in perspective, but he continues his significant ramp of improvement.
‘It’s a very technical event and that’s why there’s a massive gap between good athletes and athletes starting off in the event, because there’s so much rhythm to it, technique, speed, the endurance.
‘People just think “I run pretty quick over the 400m, I can go do a good 400m hurdles”. It doesn’t work like that.
‘So it’s really nice to see that he’s enjoying the whole process and he’s getting better.’
But not all is quite so rosy with developing athletics. The freshly-released Beijing 2027 World Athletics Championship standards did leave Chalmers in the mood for a rare rant.
The increased emphasis on world ranking qualifiers leaves Chalmers little reason to doubt his own position.
But he did quip, ‘How to make people quit the sport’ when re-posting a table packed with cut-throat standards, like 9.95 for 100m, or 48.00 for his own event.
‘They’re looking these outrageously fast times ... I think it’s completely stupid, what they’re doing, and hopefully British Athletics can just see the human side of it all and be like, “do you know what, if we actually don’t allow world ranking, no one’s going to do the sport except from Keely [Hodgkinson] and Max Burgin and Georgia [Hunter-Bell]”.
‘And so you’re like, well, that’d be a bit boring to watch on TV for British viewers. You’ve got three people at the World Championships or Olympics.
‘But it’s all down to money, like of course UK Sport and all that – they want medals and so they don’t really care and all that stuff.
‘But yeah, it’s just how it is. It’s sad really, but hopefully something can be done.’
He is hopeful that British Athletics will provide their own standards, for example 48.30, which would be challenging but more achievable.
Going to another Worlds would doubtlessly be a spectacle, but in reality, Chalmers feels that the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics are the ‘big one’.
And so he will always be thinking two steps ahead, pushing towards another defining feat for a Guernsey athlete.
‘I want to go to LA and make the final in the Olympics there, and so you’ve got to do the right things now, because that’s what’s going to help you get there really.’
