Abbey Caldwell, Jess Hull and Claudia Hollingsworth’s mile sweep a coming of age for Australian athletics

The main event for most of the crowd at Scotstoun Stadium lived up to the hype.

Scottish world record holder Josh Kerr utterly bossed a chaotic men’s mile final, teaching Australian hope Cameron Myers a lesson in competition racing.

Twenty-year-old Myers came into the Games in phenomenal form and pledged to not let the hometown favourite out of his sight in the final, but once he was boxed in and Kerr got a break, it was curtains with half a lap to go.

“He smashed me,” a visibly disappointed Myers said.

The inexperienced young gun pledged to learn from it and clearly enjoyed his time in the “electric” atmosphere.

But the finale for a historic athletics program for Australia came about half an hour later, when three Australian stars lined up in the women’s mile.

We’re used to see it in the swimming, but this time it was an international track meet that staged a replay of the Australian championships as Abbey Caldwell, Jess Hull and Claudia Hollingsworth went around the track four times.

When they ran the equivalent 1,500 metres at the national championships in April, it was a debacle.

Hollingsworth tripped Hull, which held up Caldwell, who was pipped by Sarah Billings.

Hull and Caldwell lodged protests, Hollingsworth was disqualified, and Billings was installed as national champion.

After her unusual elevation to the crown, Billings chose to only race the 800m in Glasgow, winning bronze, and her competitors from that night in Sydney stepped in as the clear fastest milers in the country.

Lining up in the Commonwealth Games final right next to Hull, Caldwell burst off the line, while Hull held back and watched as Hollingsworth settled into the pack ahead of her.

Like the nats, it was a slow race, raising the risk of another late calamity.

Instead, with 200 metres to go, Caldwell burst clear and Hull joined her.

Hull couldn’t match Caldwell but, just like when she won silver behind Rose Davies in the 5,000m, she was beaming as her teammate crossed the line ahead of her.

Meanwhile, the in-stadium announcer broke the news that the podium sweep was on as Hollingsworth, seemingly boxed in with the typically rambunctious peloton, found the space and energy to burst past Naomi Korir and claim bronze.

Caldwell had predicted a podium sweep before the athletics program started in a manner portraying matter-of-fact confidence, rather than arrogant bluster.

Even after the prediction came true, it was the importance of their presence on the start line, 9.34 metres behind the spot where Caldwell snared gold 4 minutes and 39.31 seconds later, that Hull remarked upon.

“The Aussies are a force; on that start line we’re a threat,” she said.

“We’ve done it at Commonwealth level and the next step is to do it at [world] championships, get three of us in the final and then the odds are pretty high that you’re gonna bring home a couple of medals.”

The women’s middle distance has been the jewel in the Australian track crown before the sprinters joined the party in the past couple of years.

But this podium sweep in the first female Commonwealth mile in history, Caldwell said, truly “put [them] on the map”.

“We are the best and I think we can prove that we are the best and we will come and compete for those [Olympic and world] medals,” she said.

“We do all wanna keep competing and we are worldwide competitors.

“Jess paved that path for us; we’re here to compete internationally, we’ve accomplished the Commonwealth and now we move onto the big world stage.”

If Glasgow 2026 was the coming-out party for Australia’s new short-track guns, it marked the coming of age for Caldwell, Hull, Hollingsworth and Billings, who were holding up the tartan long before it was cool.