Commonwealth T54 1500m final to be re-run

Commonwealth T54 1500m final to be re-run

AW
Published: 30th July, 2026
Updated: 30th July, 2026
BY Euan Crumley

Protests after controversial crash mean that Scotland's gold medallist Melanie Woods will try do it all again on Friday morning.

The women’s T54 1500m final at the Commonwealth Games is going to be re-run on Friday morning (July 31). The event, first staged on Wednesday evening, had initially been won by Scotland’s Melanie Woods in a Games record of 3:33.39, but the early stages of the race were marred by a controversial crash. 

The collision happened on the opening bend when Canada’s Nandini Sharma cut across Noemi Alphonse of Mauritius and resulted in four of the finalists crashing, with two unable to finish. Woods had managed to keep clear of the trouble to finish as a convincing winner and, while Sharma (3:42.38) had initially been awarded with silver, was later disqualified for her part in the incident.

England’s Ellis Kottas (4:22.07) was moved up to second place, while Australia’s Mikaela Dingley (4:42.25) was third but, after a number of protests, the decision was made to do it all again at 10.24am on Friday. Sharma’s disqualification still stands. 

In an Instagram post, Woods wrote: "Celebrated a win in Glasgow last night, but not for long! With a crash taking out quite a few of the field, the officials have decided to re-run the race. I guess we'll have to do it all again?!'

(Getty)

Speaking of the incident after race on Wednesday, Kross had said: “From my perspective, everyone wanted to get into lane one first. It's always a battle. I think two people clipped each other, and it just looked like a domino effect – one person went down, then another. I had to swerve out of the way. I did hit the wall, but the chair seems to be okay, hopefully. I managed not to topple over, so I just gave it my best shot.

“I didn't know whether there was a rule that the race would be stopped and restarted because it happened so early. I was shouting to the officials, asking if it was over. Then, about 100m later, I heard my coach shouting, "Go for it, Ellis," and I just had to lock in.”

Team Scotland said they "noted the decision" but Team England chef de mission Jonny Riall said: "While there is no formal protest process available to us, we have strongly challenged the decision. The race officials did not halt the race at the time of the incident, nor was any immediate decision made to declare the race void or order a rerun.

"Ellis and the team therefore proceeded on the understanding that all competition procedures had been completed and the result confirmed."

Meanwhile, Scotland will have two athletes in the final of the women’s Mile on the final night of athletics at the Scotstoun on Saturday. Jemma Reekie put the disappointment of her 800m exit the previous evening behind her to progress from the opening semi-final on Thursday morning (July 30) with a time of 4:35.15, while British champion Sarah Calvert dramatically grabbed the final qualifying spot with her sixth-placed finish in heat two with 4:32.04. That just pipped her fellow Scot Erin Wallace, who missed out by 0.04 seconds.

Wales’ Ava Lloyd was third in that race with a PB of 4:31.41 to join them, though her compatriot Melissa Courtney-Bryant, as well as England’s Katie Snowden and Revee Walcott-Nolan, did not progress.

Full results here

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