In the final ten metres of the home straight, a shallow puddle had formed from a morning downpour in the west end of Glasgow. The floodlights of Scotstoun stadium, bright against the grey sky, reflected in the water.

Thirty minutes before the first heat of the first discipline in the 2026 Commonwealth Games heptathlon, a parade of officials trundled onto the track pushing trolleys stacked with hurdles.

By the time they had laid the final flight, the grey skies had relinquished space to patches of blue sky, and the reflection was of sun rather than artificial light. Cold for much of the rest of the Commonwealth, warm for Scotland, and a fresh breeze which was thankfully blowing in the right direction.

100M HURDLES

Seven women emerged for the opening race. Hannah Blair of Canada, Lucy Woodward of Jersey, Ellen Barber of England, Allie Routledge of Scotland, Adele Mafogang Tenkeu of Cameroon, Maddie Wilson of New Zealand and Anna McCauley of Northern Ireland.

Barber had had a brilliant 2026 thus far, improving her indoor pentathlon to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in Torun and improving it further on the big stage. Anna McCauley had scored over 6000 points for the first time in Landquart, a week before Barber and Maddie Wilson competed in Götzis, and Adele Mafogang Tenkeu had collected another African championships medal in 2026.

And with a last gap effort, after falling in the hurdles at her attempt a few weeks earlier, Allie Routledge had secured a Scottish qualification mark of 5502 points at the end of May to make it to her home Games.

The momentum gathered in arriving at the starting line in Glasgow continued for the athletes in the first heat. With a following wind of 1.6 metres per second, strong but legal, five of the seven athletes ran lifetime bests, with the remaining two only a combined 0.15s outside their bests.

Anna McCauley took a quarter of a second off her previous best in 13.70s.

Never previously under 14 seconds, Ellen Barber leapt straight past 13.90s and 13.80s to log a huge best of 13.74s.

Hannah Blair was next in 13.93s, within 0.03 of her best. Lucy Woodward took half a second off her lifetime best, dropping it from 14.55s to 14.05s.

After chopping 0.9s off her best earlier this year, Allie Routledge improved her hurdles by another 0.2s to 14.20s.

Maddie Wilson ran 14.28s, just 0.12 outside her best. And Adele reduced her best mark from 14.96s to 14.80s.

The second heat brought the duo of medallists from 2022, bronze medallist Jade O’Dowda of England and silver medallist Kate O’Connor of Northern Ireland.

Both have flourished since the last edition of the Games; both now indisputably world-class heptathletes, and O’Connor now laden with medals from World Championships, indoor and out.

The final run over the hurdles was a crisper execution, with a useful but less significant wind of 0.8 metres per second, and little deviation from the form on paper.

In the absence of Abi Pawlett, Sienna MacDonald of Canada was the only athlete under 13 seconds, speeding to 12.99s, just two hundredths outside her lifetime best of 12.97s.

O’Dowda was next in 13.32s and O’Connor behind her in 13.54s. Both within a tenth of their lifetime best, both clearly in good form and bringing good speed.

Tori West of Australia had a strong run of 13.55s, ahead of Briana Stephenson of New Zealand.

Next was Niamh Emerson of England, a late but delighted substitute for 2022 champion Katarina Johnson Thompson, in 14.03s.

The new Australian champion Mia Scerri ran 14.05s, not too far from her best of 13.97s, and Ella Rush of Gibraltar (and University of Georgia) rounded off the field in 14.24s.

After one event, MacDonald’s sharp run put her at the top of the table, with O’Dowda and overall favourite O’Connor in second and third respectively.

HIGH JUMP

2025 was a good year for Kate O’Connor in high jump.

Her best performance in 2024 was 1.77m, which she jumped at the Olympics. In the first weekend of February in 2025, she sailed past her previous lifetime best (1.81m) to jump 1.82m in Tallinn.

Then she took it to 1.84m en route to bronze at the European Indoor championships in Apeldoorn. And she added another 2cm to clear 1.86m at the World Championships in Tokyo.

Traditionally strongest in the throws, O’Connor’s improvement in the high jump has been one of the factors which have helped her transform from being simply “in the mix” in a heptathlon field, to fighting for medals with the best in the world.

The 2026 world indoor bronze medallist has not, however, competed since she stepped down from the podium in Torun. While the first event showed her speed was good, what of the more technical jumping events?

O’Connor entered the competition at 1.67m, a safe jump to secure points and aid the early rhythm. First time clearances continued all the way to 1.79m.

The next height was 1.82m, a bar which she had only cleared for the first time a year ago. One, two, three attempts and she was over, clearing the best height in the competition alongside Maddie Wilson, who has a PB one cm more than the Irishwoman.

That put O’Connor on a points score of 2047 after two events, stepping into the lead after Sienna MacDonald cleared only 1.64m (high jump is not her best event) and dropped down to seventh place.

For context, en route to her national record of 6714 in Tokyo last year, Kate was on 2113 points.

It would be foolish to draw too many conclusions after only the second milestone on a seven-event journey. But 2047 on a wet Tuesday in Scotstoun compares very well to 2113 on a sultry day in Tokyo.

Behind O’Connor and Wilson, Jade O’Dowda and Niamh Emerson shared the next best height of 1.79m.

Emerson cleared the height at her first attempt, leaping again in glee as she marked another step on her return to top class heptathlon.

A jump so close to 1.80m is significant for Emerson.

She cleared 1.89m when winning the World U20 title in Tampere in 2018, 1.87m when securing the silver medal at the 2019 European Indoor championships here in Glasgow.

The first tentative steps of her heptathlon comeback in Arona in 2022 included a high jump of 1.85m.

So far this year, her best jumps in competition have been 1.65m, 1.74m and 1.74m. Slowly, Niamh is returning and 1.79m with no damage done is a prize worth savouring.

Hannah Blair, Mia Scerri, Briana Stephenson and Anna McCauley all cleared 1.73m, relatively speaking a stronger result for Stephenson and McCauley who both have PBs under 1.80m.

High jump has traditionally been Scotland’s Allie Routledge’s best event, competing in both the individual jump and the heptathlon throughout her career. Her best is 1.82m.

But her ongoing recovery from surgery means that it is not currently the banker event it once was, a shift in perspective she has described as “freeing.”

A jump of 1.71m was enough to power her to qualification for these championships, and viewed through that lens, 1.67m was a solid result.

After two events, O’Connor leads from O’Dowda, already 100 points ahead of third place. Maddie Wilson is at the front of the rest of the field, with just 50 points covering the remaining top ten.

 How to support my work: If you enjoyed this report and would like to to support my work, feel free to fuel my coverage with a coffee at ko-fi.com/thedecathlonwriter

WRITTEN BY: GABBY PIERACCINI