Momentum Track Club officials Mark and Marlon were part of the officiating team at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games athletics programme, held at Scotstoun Stadium from 27 July to 1 August.
Glasgow stepped in as host after Victoria, Australia withdrew from the original 2026 Commonwealth Games bid, and the resulting Games brought around 3,000 athletes from 74 nations to the city across ten sports. Athletics and Para Athletics were held at Scotstoun Stadium in the west of Glasgow, which received a new Mondo track surface installed by DYNAMIK specifically for the Games, a surface subsequently gifted to the city as a lasting legacy. The athletics programme ran across six days and featured 59 medal events, making Scotstoun the busiest competition venue in the Games schedule.
Photo — Mark and Marlon, accredited officials and members of the Momentum Track Club community, at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games athletics programme at Scotstoun Stadium.
For officials, a major championship of this kind is a significant appointment. Athletics officiating at multi-sport Games level requires formal accreditation, technical knowledge across multiple disciplines and the composure to manage competition under the kind of television scrutiny that a Commonwealth Games generates. The purple Games kit and accreditation lanyards visible in the photographs from Scotstoun are the uniform of people who have been selected to work at that level, accredited officials with the experience to operate at an international championship.
Mark is a familiar face to MTC athletes at open meets across the south of England. George Storey noted him by name in the Storey's Stories series, describing him as one of the best things about both the Stratford Speed GP and the Bromley open meets! The path from club-level officiating, timing heats at Lee Valley or field-judging at Norman Park, to officiating at a Commonwealth Games is not a short one. It requires years of graded appointments, technical examinations and experience at progressively higher levels of competition. That Mark and Marlon have reached that point is something they should be very proud of!
Athletics cannot take place without officials, and that is as true at the Commonwealth Games as it is at a Tuesday evening open meet. MTC is fortunate to have two of them!