At the time, Kerr gave his answer as the bell tolled. In a flash, he made his move, bursting to the outside in pursuit of Myers and Cheruiyot, who made theirs momentarily first.

With 250m to go, Kerr left them behind. Wightman gamely tried to follow but how do you chase down a man this fast? His brave gamble failed and the bronze medallist from the last two Games trailed home in sixth.

By then, Kerr was already celebrating gold, with Myers coming through for silver and Cheruiyot bronze.

“I peeked up at the screen, saw I had a bit of a gap, and I felt great,” added the Edinburgh athlete, who has been racing at Scotstoun since he was a child.

“I was just trying to stay present and enjoy it. I learned how to race on that track – and I’ve had some pretty bad ones out there – so to really enjoy that last 100m was a really important moment.”

It was the moment Glasgow 2026 has been building to. The historic, reinstated, Blue Riband event of these Games got a fittingly elite winner. As a student of the sport’s history, Kerr will appreciate that.

And as a kid who was at the athletics event at Hampden in 2014, he knew how much joy every man, women and child inside this place would derive from every picture he had taken, every word he shared with them, and every scrawl of his name.

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“I have to take my time out there because they’ve waited and put their hard-earned money to come out and watch me perform,” he said.

“You’ve got to stay in your lane and realise I’m lucky coming into this championship healthy, ready to go and I’m in the best shape of my life. And to do that in front of a home crowd is very special.”

Briton Mark Chamberlain stunned Republic of Ireland’s Pierce O’Leary as he dropped him twice on the way to securing a knockout win in the 10th round to claim the IBO light-welterweight belt.

Chamberlain had to climb off the canvas himself in the seventh round as O’Leary struck him with a ferocious body shot in front of a capacity crowd in Dublin.

But just as momentum appeared to be swinging in the favour of O’Leary, Chamberlain found a breakthrough and managed to get the stoppage late on.

Portsmouth’s Chamberlain now moves to 18 wins with one defeat, bouncing back to winning ways for the first time since losing to Josh Padley in 2024.

This was Chamberlain’s first fight since he drew with Jack Rafferty in Altrincham last summer.

After a tight and cagey first round, Chamberlain stunned the home crowd of around 7,000 as he landed a flush left hand that sent O’Leary flying back onto the canvas.

Chamberlain then found another big shot in the next round as he sent his opponent to the floor again with a short left hook.

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But O’Leary responded well to the knockdowns, rallied by his home crowd as he pressed on to find a way back into the fight.

He then found a breakthrough at the end of the seventh round as he backed Chamberlain into a corner and sent a punishing shot into his chest.

Chamberlain was slow to get to his feet but survived the count and managed to avoid major punishment before the bell sounded.

O’Leary continued to press on, with Chamberlain looking tired and the Irishman buoyed by the crowd.

But Chamberlain struck in the 10th with a combination that saw O’Leary drop his hands and then pressed on, landing a number of clean shots that included a straight right hand to send O’Leary tumbling into the ropes and to the canvas.

The Hundred men’s competition, Edgbaston

Birmingham Phoenix 137-9 (100 balls): Clarke 35 (23); Ferguson 2-20, Jansen 2-21

Welsh Fire 138-3 (96 balls): Root 58* (40); Wood 1-21

Welsh Fire won by seven wickets

Scorecard. Table

Joe Root scored an unbeaten half-century to guide Welsh Fire to a controlled seven-wicket win over bottom side Birmingham Phoenix.

In his first match since being reappointed as England’s Test captain on Thursday, Root struck each of his first three deliveries for four and top-scored with 58 (40) as Fire chased 138 with four balls to spare.

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Root enjoyed a 77-run first-wicket partnership with Phil Salt, who struck four sixes in his 46 (36). Salt survived being caught off the third ball of the innings – bowler Saqib Mahmood was penalised for a front-foot no ball – but had no luck when reviewing his lbw dismissal.

Rachin Ravindra was also out lbw before Jordan Cox was bowled by Mahmood for 20 (14) with Welsh Fire six runs shy of victory. Root fittingly hit the winning runs, reverse-scooping for four before jogging the winning single.

A third win of the summer moves Welsh Fire from fifth to second in the table, trailing Trent Rockets on net run-rate. Birmingham Phoenix have now lost three consecutive matches since winning their opener and remain eighth.

Electing to bat first, Phoenix raced beyond 50 inside the powerplay, Joe Clarke dispatching Sam Cook’s final five balls for 20 runs, but saw their innings implode from 53-1 to 79-5, including a dismal spell of three wickets for nine runs.

Cox completed two relay catches on the boundary to account for Mitch Owen and Clarke, who top-scored with 35 (23), while poor decision-making saw Laurie Evans and Rehan Ahmed run out in quick succession.

Donovan Ferreira injected some brief impetus, hitting Ravindra for back-to-back sixes before holing out for 23 (21), with Sean Dickson, Chris Wood and Scott Currie also departing as Phoenix limped to 137-9.

Lockie Ferguson and Marco Jansen finished with two wickets apiece.

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