Australia given Commonwealth Games enhance with Gout Gout desiring to compete in Glasgow

Australia’s chef de mission for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games has expressed her pleasure that athletes wish to compete subsequent yr in Scotland following Gout Gout’s introduced intention to race.

Gout had initially been anticipated to prioritise the August 5-9 world junior titles within the United States, the place he needs to emulate the good Usain Bolt, who received the under-20 200-metre title again in 2002.

But Gout is now set to contest the Commonwealth 100m occasion in Glasgow, earlier than heading to the US for the 200m on the world juniors.

Petria Thomas, Australia’s Glasgow 2026 chef de mission, advised ABC Sport: “It’s very exciting when our best athletes publicly announce their intention to be at the Games.”

“There is of course qualification processes that all of our athletes will need to go through, a lot can happen in the year leading into a Games,” Thomas stated.

“It’s really exciting that the athletes are saying they want to compete in the Games and we’re looking forward to having our best athletes possible on our team ready to go in a year’s time.”

Gout is in line to do one thing Bolt by no means did by operating as a person on the Commonwealth Games.

The Jamaican legend was a part of his nation’s gold medal-winning 4x100m males’s relay crew at Glasgow 2014.

Gout’s participation will additional enhance Australia’s hopes of once more topping the medal tally, which it has executed in eight of the final 9 Games relationship again to 1990.

Glasgow’s pared-down Games will function 10 sports activities, 9 lower than in 2022 in Birmingham.

Sports which Australia has historically dominated akin to hockey, rugby sevens and diving have been axed from the video games.

But 82 per cent of the nation’s medal occasions in Birmingham 2022 stay on the Glasgow program.

Commonwealth Games Australia boss Craig Phillips advised AAP that regardless of the condensed program, Australia nonetheless has ambitions to remain atop the medal tally in Scotland.

“We have ambitions to remain top of the medal tally, which is a stated ambition of ours all the time,” Phillips stated.

“We really think that our athletes can do that. What that number takes, it will take.

“But we’re fairly assured that we’ll put our athletes in the absolute best place to do this.”

ABC/AAP