The

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

competition at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

was held in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...

, India between 6 and 14 October. The

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

events took place between 6–12 October at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium while the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

contests were held on a street course running through the city on 14 October. A total of 46

athletics events The sport of athletics is defined by the many events which make up its competition programmes. All events within the sport are forms of running, walking, jumping or throwing. These events are divided into the sub-sports of track and field, road r ...

were contested, which made it the sport with the second greatest number of medals on offer after the aquatics competition. The programme was almost identical to that of the 2006 edition, with the sole exception being the men's 50 km race walk, which was dropped. As in 2006, three men's and three women's disability athletics events were contested alongside the open competition. Each of the Commonwealth Games Associations could send a maximum of three participants per event and a team of six for relay events.

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

topped the medal table, with eleven

gold medals A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

and 29 medals in total. This was the first time that the nation achieved the feat, beating the typically dominant nations

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

(eleven golds, but 20 overall) and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

(seven golds, 26 medals).

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

rounded out the top five while hosts India enjoyed their greatest ever haul at the Games, taking home two golds and twelve medals altogether. Four failed doping tests have so far been announced: Nigerian

Oludamola Osayomi Oludamola Bolanle ("Damola") Osayomi (born 26 June 1986 in Ilesha, Osun State) is a Nigerian sprinter who specializes in the 100 metres and 200 metres. She is a four-time gold medallist at the African Championships in Athletics and won an Ol ...

was stripped of the women's 100 m title, and her compatriot

Samuel Okon Samuel Godwin Okon (born on 15 December 1996) is a Nigerian footballer who plays for Nigerian side Bayelsa United. A left-back who can also play in center of the defense, he made his name when he became 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup champion with Ni ...

, a 110 m hurdler, was also disqualified. Both athletes tested positive for

methylhexanamine Methylhexanamine (also known as methylhexamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine, 1,3-DMAA, dimethylamylamine, and DMAA; trade names Forthane and Geranamine) is an indirect sympathomimetic drug invented and developed by Eli Lilly and Company and marketed a ...

Rani Yadav ''Rani'' in Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, sometimes spelled ''Ranee'', is a Hindu/ Sanskrit feminine given name. The term is the female form of the term for princely rulers in South and Southeast Asia and applies equally to the wife o ...

, India's representative in the women's 20 km walk, was the third athlete to fail a test as 19-Norandrosterone was detected in her sample. Osayomi's 100 m stripped gold initially went to

Sally Pearson Sally Pearson, OAM (née McLellan; born 19 September 1986) is an Australian former athlete. She is the 2011 and 2017 World champion and 2012 Olympic champion in the 100 metres hurdles. She also won a silver medal in the 100 m hurdles at t ...

of Australia but a delay in the appeals process saw Pearson disqualified for a false start some time after the race.

Folashade Abugan Folashade Abigeal Abugan (born 17 December 1990) is a Nigerian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. She was the 400 m bronze medalist at the 2007 All-Africa Games and improved to the silver medal at the 2008 African Championships, ...

of Nigeria tested positive for

Testosterone Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristi ...

prohormone A prohormone is a committed precursor of a hormone consisting of peptide hormones synthesized together that has a minimal hormonal effect by itself because of its expression-suppressing structure, often created by protein folding and binding additi ...

following the final of the women's 400 metres. She was disqualified from the 400 metres and the Nigerian team, of which she was a member, were disqualified from the women's 4 x 400 metres relay where they had originally placed second.

Preparation

A test event for the competition was scheduled in late July: the Asian All-Star Athletics Meet featured a number of prominent Asian athletes and demonstrated the stadium's readiness for games usage. Many of the most prominent athletes from the Commonwealth were absent from the competition.

Caster Semenya Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB (born 7 January 1991) is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 ...

, Commonwealth champion

Christine Ohuruogu Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu , MBE (born 17 May 1984) is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is a former Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and ...

, and Olympic medallist Lisa Dobriskey were among the athletes missing due to injury, but others including

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight-ti ...

, David Rudisha and

Shelly-Ann Fraser Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce OD, OJ (née Fraser; born December 27, 1986) is a Jamaican track and field sprinter competing in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time. ...

opted to miss the competition out of choice – all ten of the year's fastest Commonwealth men's 100 m runners (including defending champion

Asafa Powell Asafa Powell, CD (born 23 November 1982) is a retired Jamaican sprinter who specialised in the 100 metres. He set the 100 metres world record twice, between June 2005 and May 2008 with times of 9.77 and 9.74 seconds. Powell has consisten ...

) were not present.Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-05)
Kenya looking to dethrone England and Australia in Delhi – Commonwealth Games preview

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

. Retrieved on 2010-10-04. Further to this, two reigning

world champions A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

(English jumper

Phillips Idowu Phillips Olaosebikan Idowu, (born 30 December 1978) is a British athlete who specialises in the triple jump. He is a former World Outdoor and Indoor, European Outdoor and Indoor, and Commonwealth triple jump champion. He was also a silver med ...

and Australian thrower

Dani Samuels Dani Stevens (née Samuels, born 26 May 1988) is a retired Australian discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event. She is the current national and Oceanian record holder. Stevens qualified for the 2020 ...

) declared themselves out of the running on grounds of the security and accommodation conditions in Delhi. The competition's late scheduling within the

season was a primary factor in many athlete withdrawals.Jones, Phil (2010-10-02)
Commonwealth Games 2010: Time for new athletics heroes

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside f ...

. Retrieved on 2010-10-05. In spite of this, a number of Olympic champions and other prominent names were selected to compete, including Australian Olympic/World champion

Steve Hooker ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

and New Zealand's Olympic/World Champion Valerie Adams, top Kenyan runners Nancy Langat, Vivian Cheruiyot and Ezekiel Kemboi, Bahamian high jumper Donald Thomas, and South Africa's Commonwealth champions L.J. van Zyl and Sunette Viljoen. Former

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

holder

Steve Cram Stephen Cram, (born 14 October 1960) is a British retired track and field athlete. Along with fellow Britons Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, he was one of the world's dominant middle distance runners during the 1980s. Nicknamed "The Jarrow Arr ...

emphasised the Games' role in developing younger athletes: "That's what it was for me, at 17 years old I went to the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the ex ...

because Coe and Ovett didn't go. Nobody at the time was telling me it was bad that Coe and Ovett weren't there." The stadium's track and field was damaged during the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

and major works – including the re-laying of the tarmac on the track and grass on the infield – took place in the 24 hours leading up to the first day of

at the stadium. Three training venues were allocated for the athletics events: the Commonwealth Games Village 2010,

Thyagaraj Sports Complex The Thyagaraj Sport Complex is a sports stadium in New Delhi, India. It is owned by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and was built at the cost of . It was designed by leading architects PTM of Australia and Kapoor & Asso ...

and the

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

sports complex.

Medal summary

Men

* Athletes who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Men's para-sport

Women

2008 Australian Olympic team Steve Hooker - Sarah Ewart cropped

* Athletes who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Women's para-sport

Games statistics

At the competition

Amantle Montsho Amantle Montsho (born July 4, 1983) is a female sprinter from Botswana who specializes in the 400 metres. She represented her country at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the final at the latter edition. She was the first woman to rep ...

(Botswana) and Cydonie Mothersill (Cayman Islands) all won the first ever Commonwealth gold medals for their respective countries. Natasha Mayers (St. Vincent and Grenadines), won the first gold medal ever by a female for her country. The number of medal sweeps in the athletics (6) was at an all-time high for the competition: Kenya took all top three spaces in four events, England beat all in the men's hurdles while hosts India completed a 1–2–3 in the women's discus.Statistics of the Games
2010 Commonwealth Games. Retrieved on 2010-10-15.

Medal table

Participating nations

61 Nations competed leaving 11 that did not. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

;Day reports *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-07)
Kipsiro upsets Kipchoge - Commonwealth Games Day One

. Retrieved on 2010-10-10. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-08)
Clarke and Oludamola take 100m crowns, Armstrong dominates Shot Put in Delhi – Commonwealth Games Day Two

. Retrieved on 2010-10-10. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-09)
Langat breaks Games 1500m record, Turner leads high hurdles sweep for England in Delhi – Commonwealth Games Day Three

. Retrieved on 2010-10-10. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-10)
Two more gold for Kenya, Adams dominates Shot Put - Commonwealth Games Day Four

. Retrieved on 2010-10-10. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-11)
Kenyan men sweep 800m, two medals for India in Delhi - Commonwealth Games, Day Five

. Retrieved on 2010-10-14. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-12)
India sweeps women's Discus Throw, Langat and Kipsiro complete doubles – Commonwealth Games Day Six

. Retrieved on 2010-10-14. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-13)
Women's relay team crowns Indian glory - Commonwealth Games, Day Seven

. Retrieved on 2010-10-14. *Rowbottom, Mike (2010-10-14
Double marathon triumph for Kenya ends athletics programme at Commonwealth Games

. Retrieved on 2010-10-15.

External links

Competition schedule
{{Sports at the 2010 Commonwealth Games

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2010 Commonwealth Games events