Welsh Athletes Ready to Feel The Power of the Dragon As Commonwealth Games Countdown Begins

The countdown clock has ticked past the one year to go landmark and Finnie the Unicorn mascot has made her glittery bow.

Preparations for next year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games are officially underway.

Another sign the event is starting to loom large on the horizon is the excitement growing amongst Welsh track and field hopefuls.

The Games are the only major global event where athletes get to pull on the red vest.

Many of the nation’s top stars are already talking about how much it means to represent their nation.

Among them are thrower Harrison Walsh, who had seemed destined for Welsh rugby union honours before a catastrophic leg injury ended his career with the Ospreys region.

However, Walsh has made a hugely successful transition from Wales Under-20s prop to para athletics discus international.

During his appearance on the weekly Welsh Athletics Beyond the Track podcast, Walsh spoke passionately about what it means to represent Wales for the nation’s athletes.

Having represented Great Britain in front of 70,000 people at last year’s Paris Paralympics, Walsh said: “I like competing for Great Britain, but I love competing for Wales.

“I’ve said it a couple of times, it’s so special because I grew up wanting to represent Wales.

“I think there is a difference when you’re competing for Great Britain, it feels like you’re doing it for yourself, and that’s important.

“But when you’re competing for Wales it feels like you’re doing it for a little bit more than for yourself. But it doesn’t drag you down. Sometimes people can think about it like ‘this is for everybody’, and that can drag you down.

“Whereas, I think, when you compete for Wales, it feels like it pulls you up. You’re almost being supported by them.”

Talking about the experience of competing at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where he claimed a bronze medal, Walsh said: “For me, it was so special, it was my favourite champs by far up until this point. With the team, they were amazing.

“Everybody was so supportive and everybody wanted each other to do well. I’d not yet felt that. It was the closest to a rugby team that I’ve felt. A lot of compassion.

“It’s hard to describe what it feels like to be Welsh, but it is a privilege. And there are lots of ways that you can be Welsh. And that’s what I love the most about the Commonwealth Games.

“You can be born here, right. And it’s thrust upon you. But you’ve also got people who choose . . . I’m so proud that people choose to be Welsh.

“That sense of being able to show people what it feels like and what it means to me. And it means different things to other people. Hearing them, how they describe that.

“Then you get to pull that vest on and represent Wales on the biggest stage, it’s just fantastic.”

Walsh adds: “I remember standing in the stadium, seeing all those bucket hats, and it sounds silly, but you know that they are there for you, because you’re the only one on the track at that time.”

Walsh finished third behind legendary Welsh para athlete Aled Davies, who claimed gold.

The Swansea Harrier recalls: “I was lucky enough to share a podium with a fellow Welshman so I actually got to hear the Welsh national anthem on the podium, which was pretty special.

“Going towards Glasgow, I’d like to hear that myself on the top step. It was a superb experience.”

One of those who Walsh referred to as having chosen to represent Wales is another thrower, Freya Jones, who represented England the last time the games were in Glasgow in 2014.

Updated eligibility rules mean England-born Jones can now compete for the land of her father – proud Welshman, Alan.

After winning her first Welsh javelin title earlier this summer, the Harrow athlete said of the prospect of competing in the red vest this time around: “It would mean the world, and also to my family. I can't imagine what my dad would be like in the crowd!

“It’s emotional just thinking about it. It's so funny. We were talking about it today as we drove over the Severn Bridge. I swear his accent gets thicker and thicker every single time he drives over it!”

Another who is hoping to be selected to make a return to a Glasgow Commonwealth Games is Wales’ fastest ever woman over 100m - Hannah Brier.

The Welsh-speaking Swansea Harrier, who competed at Hampden Park as a 16-year-old back in 2014, is hoping to make it a hat-trick of Games having also run at the Birmingham event in 2022.

Describing the feeling of competing for Wales, Brier says: “It gives me goosebumps! I’ve said it a few times but there’s no better feeling than pulling on that Welsh vest.”

Brier adds the Birmingham Games were particularly emotional due to the level of Welsh support which had descended on England’s second city.

“It was crazy walking out into that stadium. I didn’t think I’d get emotional. But I remember for the 200m heats it was early in the morning. Walking out, I physically could not look into the crowd because it would make me cry.

“All I could see was little kids shouting ‘come on Wales’ and they have their Welsh flags and bucket hats.

“I was thinking ‘Hannah, hold yourself together, you’re about to run, not standing on the start line crying. Like, what are you doing?!”

Brother Joe, like Hannah is a former pupil of Welsh medium comprehensive Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera.

In 2021, he represented Great Britain in front of an empty stadium at the Tokyo Olympics, which had been postponed from the previous year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 400m star says: “Every athlete’s ambition is at some point to go to the Olympics so that was incredible for me, but when I competed at Birmingham, it was more like a homely atmosphere.

“I know Birmingham’s not Wales but I had loads of supporters up there and the atmosphere was incredible. We never really get to represent Wales at a senior level apart from the Games.

“You’ve got your Loughborough Internationals and stuff like that but the Commonwealth Games in 2022 was incredible for me.”

Like Brier, shot putter Adele Nicoll has represented Great Britain at an Olympics, although her experience was at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

The Birchfield Harrier, who is from Welshpool, is hoping to return to the Winter Olympics in Milan next year and double up at the Commonwealth Games – just as she did in 2022 when she competed in Birmingham.

Nicoll, who has also represented GB at the bobsleigh World Cup and Europa Cup says: “Birmingham Commonwealth Games is the best competition in any sport that I have ever experienced. The atmosphere was incredible.

“Seeing all of the Welsh flags was just phenomenal because it was one of those feelings where I knew that they might not know who I am but because they had the Welsh flag I knew that they were supporting me.

“It was amazing, they didn’t even necessarily know what the event was or who you were but they were going crazy for Team Wales.”

Another Glasgow hopeful who has Olympic and Commonwealth Games experience is World Indoor 60m champion Jeremiah Azu, who won a 4x100m bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.

Despite his successes in a GB vest, Azu relishes the opportunity to run for Wales again, having finished fifth in the 100m final in Birmingham.

“It’s so unique,” says Azu. “I kind of look forward to it even more because it’s not as often (as representing GB).

“You feel a different strength when you put that Welsh vest on. You truly feel like the Welsh people are with you.

“There’s definitely an element of that when you wear the British kit, but because I’m the only Welsh sprinter in the GB set up, I feel it’s just a unique feeling to be away from that and have the Welsh vest on.

“Especially because we’re the dragons as well, there is so much power in that!”