This was the event of the Games. An Australian had a ‘terrrible’ race and won silver

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Glasgow: The Commonwealth Games were patched together at the 11th hour in an attempt to salvage an anachronistic concept.

To do so, organisers resurrected an anachronistic distance, loved by Americans (who aren’t here) and by nostalgists. They raced a mile in Glasgow, not the 1500 metres, an imperial reach back to the Empire Games. It would be very retro, but for the fact that it sounds too modern a term.

On Sunday morning (AEST), the Games then delivered two cinematically perfect mile races worthy of being raced in white singlets on a beach with a Chariots of Fire soundtrack.

In the men’s mile, Australia’s Cameron Myers discovered what happens when potential collides with experience.

In the event of the Games, the callow Myers, who has swept all records before him to reach his 20th birthday, confronted the Scot Josh Kerr who last month broke the world record, and was racing on his home track before a crowd who figured frigid conditions perfect for suntanning. He could not have roused them to a giddier state had he stood on the blocks with his face painted blue, screaming that no one would ever take his freedom.

Myers is on a trajectory to go past Kerr, but finding a trajectory can be easier than finding a path through a thicket of mile runners on a blue track.

Myers ran a terrible race. And won silver.

He was cranky with himself afterwards, not so much for the fact he lost, but for the fact he didn’t give himself a serious chance to win.

Losing to the new world record holder Kerr cannot be a surprise, but running a clunky race yet still coming second made it a moment not for celebration, but self-flagellation.

“I mean it’s good, a silver [medal], but I want to be challenging. The reality was that with 50 metres to go he was five, ten metres clear so, to me, it doesn’t even feel like I was racing him, I was racing the other guys,” Myers said.

“You know, I don’t want to be the best of the rest. I want to be challenging to win a race.

“I could feel the energy. It was electric. I mean, I was introduced right next to Kerr, and it felt like the stadium erupted. Even when he walked out, he was one spot behind me, and you can just feel the energy that he’s bringing, and the fact that he was able to deliver under so much pressure, it’s full credit to the athlete.

“It’s definitely one of the most physical [races] but I haven’t had too much experience in those races.”

Myers was stuck where he didn’t want to be and couldn’t get out. He waited, saw Kerr break and still found a way to work to the lead of the chasing pack, but by that stage he was no chance of reining Kerr in. Still, he found a way to salvage a silver medal, running 3:55.26 behind Kerr, who won in 3:54.12.

It was not dissimilar to Nina Kennedy the night earlier when the Olympic champion performed well below herself in the pole vault and still won silver.

“I got drafted lane one, which sucks. I mean, my plan was to go to the front and sort of control it, just run a comfortable but fast speed, and I couldn’t really do that because I couldn’t get out at any point,” Myers said.

“I looked to my right to see if I could get out around and I just had nowhere to go, so I had to change my plan on the go, which was to sit and just remain as comfortable as possible.

“I got to a good spot at the bell, but like inevitably, when Kerr made his move he had a jump on me and you can’t give someone a jump at this level, and he smashed me in the end.”

If the men’s race offered the Empire a sense of warm reassurance, then the women’s race was an assertion that Australia might have rudely chosen not to host these Games but the Commonwealth Games are now undoubtedly owned by Australia.

The Australians swept the podium: Abbey Caldwell taking gold from Jess Hull and Claudia Hollingsworth in silver and bronze.

The women, two of whom clashed – or rather, accidentally collided – at the national championships only months ago in dramatic fashion now shared a podium.

“We had a moment together in the second China Diamond League meet when we were cooling down, and I just said, all that matters this year is that we’re going to sweep that Commonwealth podium, and we all ran our own race tonight, and we’ve executed that, and we’ve done it,” Hull said.

Hollingsworth added: “It’s incredible to have all three green and gold on the podium, it is just so exciting. I hope everyone keeps watching us because we’ve got big things coming, and it’s so exciting to do it all together.

“It’s so exciting to be up there together, and we both said that at the end of the race, we gave each other such a big hug, and just know we put it all together. We just know we’re such good competitors and good friends, and to step on the podium together is really, really special.”

Hull said sweeping the podium was not a comment on the quality of the Commonwealth Games but a statement to the world about Australian middle-distance running.

“The Aussies are a force, you know. Like if we are on that start line, we’re a threat. So I think we’ve done it at Commonwealth level now, and then the next step is to do it at championships. To get three of us into the final then the odds are pretty high that you’re going to bring home a couple of medals.”

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