Commonwealth Games 2026: Eilish McColgan might have ‘one more’ Games in her

In the meantime, she is in Glasgow for the next few days to revel in an event which looked like it might not happened at all not all that long ago.

And she says that what the city has done in the 18 months since agreeing to take on the Games when the Australian state of Victoria withdrew has set a template for future multi-sport events.

“It’s not the big shiny games that we’ve had in previous years, but it’s been done on tight timeframes so I think they’ve done well to pull it together,” McColgan said.

“Glasgow has stepped up. And I hope that other countries now see that it doesn’t need to have this huge, huge budget to make it work. We don’t need brand-new infrastructure or stadiums and all the athletes staying in a big village.

“There’s still mass-market appeal. And I do hope this gives the Games a bit of life to continue, because it would be sad to lose it, and lose the opportunity to represent Scotland.

“Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. For me, making a Scotland team felt like it might be doable because there’s a smaller number of people to get selected. That’s what the Games can do.”