Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Scotland is one of only six countries to have competed in every Commonwealth Games since the first Empire Games in 1930. The others are Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and Wales. The Commonwealth Games is the only major multi-sport event in which Scottish athletes and teams compete as Scotland; otherwise Scotland participates in multi-sport events as part of a Great Britain team.
Harry Leslie Aikines-Aryeetey is an English sprinter. In 2005 he was named as the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and the IAAF's Rising Star of the Year after becoming the first athlete to win gold medals at both 100 metres and 200 metres at the World Youth Championships.
Amantle Montsho is a female sprinter from Botswana who specializes in the 400 metres. She represented her country at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the final at the latter edition. She was the first woman to represent Botswana at the Olympics. She has also competed at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Indoor Championships, and is the former World Champion over the 400m, winning in a personal best time of 49.56 in Daegu.
Benn Harradine is a retired Australian discus thrower who competed at three consecutive Olympic Games, starting in 2008.
Athletics is one of several sports contested at the quadrennial Commonwealth Games competition. It has been a Commonwealth Games sport since the inaugural edition of the event's precursor, the 1930 British Empire Games. It is a core sport and must be included in the sporting programme of each edition of the Games.
At the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, the athletics events were held at Empire Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in July and August 1954. A total of 29 athletics events were contested at the Games, 20 by men and 9 by women. A total of twenty-four Games records were set or improved over the competition, leaving just five previous best marks untouched. The 1954 edition saw the introduction of the shot put and discus throw for women, as well as the first 4×110 yards relay for women.
Julia Ratcliffe is a retired New Zealand track and field athlete who specialised in the hammer throw. She won the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, having won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Melissa Breen is an Australian 100 metres and 200 metres runner. Breen broke the Australian record for the women's 100 m sprint, when she clocked 11.11 seconds at the ACT Championships, held on 9 Feb 2014 at the Australian Institute of Sport track in Canberra under ideal conditions with a 1.9 mps following wind, warm conditions and 600+ metres elevation. This broke a record previously held by Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, which had stood for more than 20 years.
Jodi Elkington-Jones is Australian athlete who has cerebral palsy. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and has also competed in two Commonwealth Games, winning gold in the 2014 Games in the F37/38 long jump. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics.
Tomas Walsh is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put. He is the current national record holder both outdoors and indoors for the event. His personal best of 22.90 m, set in Doha, 5 October 2019, is also the Oceanian record and makes him the sixth best shot putter in history.
Zane Robertson is a New Zealand middle and long-distance runner. He won the bronze medal in the 5000 metres at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Robertson is the Oceanian record holder for the 10 kilometres and half marathon, and New Zealand record holder for the marathon. He also holds the area best in the road 10 miles. He is currently serving an eight-year ban for breaching two World Athletics anti-doping rules.
Athletics was one of ten core sports that appeared at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As a founding sport, athletics has appeared consistently since its introduction at the 1911 Inter-Empire Games; the recognised precursor to the Commonwealth Games.
Australia competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, between 23 July and 3 August 2014.
England competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, between 23 July and 3 August 2014. Commonwealth Games England named a team of 416 athletes consisting of 216 men and 200 women across the 18 disciplines.
Canada competed in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland from July 23 to August 3, 2014. It was the nation's 20th appearance at the Commonwealth Games, having competed at every Games since their inception in 1930. Canada competed in 16 out of 17 sports with the only exception being netball. Canada's team consisted of 265 athletes and 100 support staff, the largest team for a games not hosted by the country. On September 12, 2012 former Commonwealth Games medalist Chantal Petitclerc was named as the Chef de mission of the team, marking the first time a former para athlete was named to the post.
The Men's 400 metres at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, as part of the athletics programme, was held at Hampden Park between 28 and 30 July 2014. The event was won by pre-event favourite and Olympic champion Kirani James in a new Commonwealth Games record. Wayde van Niekerk from South Africa came second and Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago got the bronze medal.
Ella Azura Pardy is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in the T38 100m, 200m and long jump. She represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in long jump and the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics where she won a bronze medal and the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Portia Bing is a New Zealand athlete who specialises in the heptathlon. She competed at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China finishing sixteenth. Her heptathlon personal best is 6102 points set in Brisbane in 2015.
