Commonwealth Games track and field preview: Men's relay team, hammer throw champs headline Canada's contenders

We're one day away from the start of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, where athletes from 74 countries and territories associated with the old British Empire will compete in 10 different sports.

Similar to the Summer Olympics, the two sports that will draw the most attention are swimming and track and field. With that in mind, we looked at the Canadian swimmers to watch in yesterday's newsletter, and today we're doing the same for track and field, which looks like it'll be Canada's No. 1 sport in these Games.

Why? Well, unlike swimming, where superstar Summer McIntosh opted to skip the Commonwealths in favour of the high-status Pan Pacific championships, the Commonwealth Games are the marquee event of the summer for Canada's track and field athletes. All three of the Canadian athletes/teams who won gold at the 2024 Olympics will be competing in Glasgow, along with several other Olympic and world-championship medallists.

Here's who to watch.

De Grasse and friends go for relay gold

It's been almost two years, and I still can't stop watching Canada's stunning victory in the men's 4x100m relay final at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. With apologies to the Canadian women's soccer team's surprise gold, it was the highlight of those Games for me and a top-three moment in Canadian track history (along with this and this).

The men who authored that incredible win — Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and the great Andre De Grasse — will try to add their first Commonwealth Games relay medal in Glasgow. It's one of the few things left to accomplish for this quartet, which also boasts an Olympic silver medal in 2021, a world-championship gold in 2022 (when they shocked the United States on its home track in Oregon)