‘I’m not there to come second’: Before a hostile crowd, this Australian wants to change history

Glasgow: Cameron Myers knows no one wants him to win. Not the Scots anyway. Actually, the English are not terribly keen on him winning either.

Those in green and gold are obviously fully behind the middle-distance runner, but after Australia’s domination in the pool throughout the Commonwealth Games, and on the track on Tuesday night, people are getting a bit sick of all the winning.

Myers has done nothing wrong, other than be quick and the threat to Scotland’s pin-up boy of the Games, Josh Kerr.

“Everyone’s cheering for the Scots, and I’m sure they want to go one, two. I’m trying to spoil that,” the 20-year-old Australian, who is ranked No.2 in the world, said after winning his heat and going into the mile (1600 metres) final.

Kerr broke the mile world record last week at the London Diamond League. In Glasgow, they have scrapped the 1500 metres in favour of a mile as a sentimental nod to one of the great events of the sport. Myers, too, has his eye on this history.

“Given the story of Roger Bannister and John Landy – I think Bannister won gold and Landy was holding the world record [in the mile]. Hopefully, I can reverse the roles there, but we’ll see,” said Myers, who won his heat in 3:53.85 from England’s former world champion from three years ago Jake Wightman.

“It’s a different ball game coming to a championships. You have to deal with a lot more factors. I think we saw that at Paris 2024, Jakob [Ingebrigtsen] had run two seconds better than anyone else in the field, and he still wasn’t able to win. I think it shows you that championship racing is not about the time you have on paper; it’s how you execute.

“I’m a competitor. I don’t want to lose, I’m not going there to come second. I’ll be cracking in as best I can.”

Kerr is clearly expected to win. He’s a world champion and a silver medallist, has just won the world record, and is running in front of his home crowd. Myers is a 20-year-old kid from Canberra who hasn’t won anything substantial yet other than the respect and fear of competitors who know he is the next big thing in the sport.

At every age level, Myers has broken records, and he is the second-fastest man in the world this year over a mile behind Kerr.

In drizzly, wet Glasgow, he wants to rain on the Scottish parade.

“I have confidence, obviously, and I think it’s more about proving myself in a championship setting, I think that’s something that I’ve yet to do. So for me, it’s actually still I would say a stepping stone to getting to becoming the sort of athlete that I want to be,” he said.

It’s a funny change to the mile from the 1500m for these Games. It is jarring because everything else is metric, but oddly enough, it makes more sense than the 1500m. It has history behind it – and the simple fact is that it is four laps of the track.

Myers thinks the distance change should stick for the Olympics and world championships.

“I think it’s a way that we can attract more people into the sport, holding the miles. I think obviously Americans still love it, so I think it’s just something that regular people can resonate a little bit more to. I think the 1500 is a weird one, you know. It’s not a [kilometre], which people know of. It’s not a 2K. I think it’s having those numbers that people don’t really understand the context behind it.”

Earlier, Lachie Kennedy returned to the track for the 200m hearts with the sluggishness of a man who just became the fastest Australian man, won a silver medal and spent the night trying to comprehend it all.

“I’m a bit cooked now, but yeah, no, it’s been an exciting couple of hours,” he said.

“It’s still all sort of surreal. I guess I haven’t really grasped how big it is yet because I’ve still got races to run. Still got things to do. But I’m definitely coming around to it.”

After two days and six events, Tori West sat in third place in the heptathlon. The scenario for her last race, the 800m, was simple. Run a personal best, and stay in third to claim bronze, or let the English runner in fourth beat her across the line by more than five or so seconds and slip out of the medals.

“That was the stupidest 800 I’ve ever run in my life,” West said after bolting to the front and nearly blowing up. But she hung on, ran her personal best and won bronze.

Elsewhere, Sarah Billings was strong in her 800m semi-final, making it through to Friday’s final.

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