Athletics

Enter the ultimate proving ground of human performance. Witness sprinters, throwers and jumpers push themselves to their outermost limits in a dynamic test of speed, agility and endurance.

Athletics is often seen as the main event of any multi-sport games and the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games were no different.

A total of 58 gold medals were available in track and field for Team England on the Gold Coast as athletes came together to compete for Team and Country.

Team England placed third on the medal table behind Australia and Jamaica and won 17 medals in total: five gold, five silver and seven bronze.

Athletes compete to run faster, jump longer or throw further than their competitors across a variety of iconic distances and disciplines.

Team England is one of the only teams that disabled and non-disabled athletes compete in the same team and there were 11 para athletics gold medals up for grabs at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Birmingham 2022 is set to include the largest para programme ever seen in Commonwealth Games history with eight para sports.

The Gold Coast 2018 team included household names such as world champion Katarina Johnson Thompson, double Paralympic gold medallist, Sophie Hahn, 800m runner Kyle Langford and Britain's fastest woman, Dina Asher-Smith.

In lane number 5 with Asha Philip, Dina Asher Smith, Bianca Williams, Lorraine Ugen, the England team make a national record of 42.46 seconds. Storming a perfect straight, and achieving well deserved gold medals, closely followed by Jamaica and Nigeria.

Women's 4x100m relay - Final

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You might need to know...

Track events take place over distances between 100m and 10,000m with the first athlete to cross the line declared the winner

Jumping events see athletes aim to jump further (long jump, triple jump) or higher (high jump, pole vault) with the longest or highest distance winning gold. Long jump and triple jump are conducted over a six jump contest whilst high jump and pole vault athletes are eliminated after three consecutive failed attempts

Throws including javelin, hammer, discus and shot put challenge athletes to throw implements as far as possible with the best of six attempts measured, whoever throws the furthest in each discipline is the successful winner

Decathlon for men and heptathlon for women are multi-event competitions scored on points which aim to determine the best all round athlete across a number of disciplines

Athletics has been a Commonwealth sport since the 1930 'Empire Games' and England is the second most successful athletics nation in the history of the Commonwealth Games with a total of 577 medals.

Team England previous athletics medals

194

Gold

200

Silver

183

Bronze

577

Total

Being the host nation for Birmingham 2022, Team England athletes are going to be competing on home soil at Alexander Stadium, located just outside the city centre of Birmingham, where the action will unfold and Team England will come together to compete as one team.

Team Leader

Kelly Sotherton

Kelly is a three-time Olympic Medallist, World and European medallist and Commonwealth Champion at Heptathlon and 4x400m. She was an elite athlete for over 10 years and retired shortly before the London 2012 due to a severe back injury.

Since her retirement, Kelly has worked in various media outlets covering sport and topical issues. Kelly coached in Track & Field for eight years and has been involved in u18, u20, u23 & Senior Championship level as team coach and leader. Having been a Team Coach for Athletics in Gold Coast 2018, she now leads Athletics in her Home City of Birmingham for 2022.

Kelly is passionate about Athlete Welfare and fair processes and founded the British Athletics Athletes Commission in 2017. Kelly sits on the World Athletics Gender Leadership Taskforce and is a Non-Executive member of British Weightlifting.