World class NZ athletics team for Glasgow
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A 21-strong New Zealand athletics team has been selected for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Steeplechase world champion Geordie Beamish headlines the strong Kiwi contingent on the track.
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Beamish stunned the sporting world in 2025 when he flew from seventh to the lead to overhaul two-time Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali in the final strides at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The win was New Zealand's first-ever world title in a men's track event.
Beamish is now based in Boulder, Colorado and will be looking to improve on his fifth-place finish at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Men’s Shot Put is set to be a one to watch in Glasgow with tour-time world indoor champ Tom Walsh, the most decorated male athlete in World Athletics Indoor Championships history with seven medals.
Walsh returns to defend his Commonwealth Games title alongside Birmingham 2022 silver medallist Jacko Gill.
Walsh and Gill's one-two finish in Birmingham was one of the big moments of the Games, with the pair now joined by rising young thrower Nick Palmer at Glasgow 2026. Palmer has trained alongside Walsh in recent years and is a regular 20m+ thrower.
In the women's field events, Imogen Ayris makes her return to the Games as the reigning Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in the Pole Vault.
She will arrive in Glasgow in career-best form after a bronze medal at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń in 2026 and clearing a new PB of 4.81m at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland in June.
She is joined in the Pole Vault by three-time Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Eliza McCartney, the national record holder at 4.94m and 2025 London Diamond League winner Olivia McTaggart. The trio makes up one of the deepest Women's Pole Vault groups New Zealand has fielded at a major Games.
Reigning High Jump World, Commonwealth and Olympic champion Hamish Kerr also returns to the New Zealand Team. Kerr cleared 2.30m earlier this year at the Track Stars event in Auckland and has set his sights for more at Glasgow 2026.
Sprint star Zoe Hobbs leads the women's track programme fresh off of a Diamond League podium in Oslo and an 11.00s performance over 100m in Darwin at the Oceania Athletics Championships.
In the middle distances New Zealand is represented by Paris Olympian James Preston in the Men's 800m, who shattered Sir Peter Snell's 62-year-old 800m national record in 2024, and two-time Olympian Sam Tanner who will contest the Men's One Mile.
Beamish has also been given permission to start in the Men’s One Mile in Glasgow, meaning two Kiwis could contest the distance which returns to the Commonwealth Games programme for the first time since 1966.
National Javelin record holder Tori Moorby and five-time national Hammer champion Lauren Bruce lead the women's throws, while reigning World Under-20 Triple Jump champion Ethan Olivier makes his Commonwealth Games debut.
The Heptathlon features debutants Briana Stephenson, alongside national champion Maddie Wilson. Anthony Barmes, James Steyn and Nick Southgate round out the team in the Men's Hammer and Pole Vault respectively.
Athletics New Zealand CEO, Cam Mitchell, said the team was one of the strongest athletics contingents New Zealand had assembled for a Commonwealth Games.
"From reigning World, Commonwealth and Olympic champions to athletes competing at their first Games, we have exceptional depth and real medal aspirations across multiple events. Glasgow 2026 is going to be an outstanding Games for New Zealand athletics."
The Athletics programme takes place at Scotstoun Sports Campus from 27 July to 1 August.
NZ Team — Athletics | Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games:
Max Attwell – Men’s Decathlon
Imogen Ayris – Women’s Pole Vault
Anthony Barmes – Men’s Hammer Throw
Geordie Beamish – Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
Lauren Bruce – Women’s Hammer Throw
Jacko Gill – Men’s Shot Put
Anna Grimaldi – Women’s 100m T47 (selected on 30 April)
Zoe Hobbs – Women’s 100m
Hamish Kerr – Men’s High Jump
Eliza McCartney – Women’s Pole Vault
Olivia McTaggart – Women’s Pole Vault
Tori Moorby – Women’s Javelin
Ethan Olivier – Men’s Triple Jump
Nick Palmer – Men’s Shot Put
James Preston – Men’s 800m
Nick Southgate – Men’s Pole Vault
James Steyn – Men’s Pole Vault
Briana Stephenson – Women’s Heptathlon
Sam Tanner – Men’s One Mile
Tom Walsh – Men’s Shot Put
Maddie Wilson – Women’s Heptathlon
The following athlete has been granted permission to start in an additional event at the Games:
Geordie Beamish – Men’s One Mile
