Davies delivers historic 10,000m gold as Australia opens its Glasgow account

Rose Davies has become the first Australian woman to win a Commonwealth Games 10,000m title, running down Kenya’s Diana Wanza to claim gold in 31:39.32 on the opening night of athletics at Scotstoun.

The victory — Australia’s first gold of the athletics program — bettered the previous national best in the event, Kylie Risk’s silver from Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

Rose Davies celebrates her gold medal in the 10000m at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Photo by Fred Etter.

“I’m so happy. I haven’t really processed it all yet, but at the moment I’m stoked,” Davies said trackside.

It was a race of two distinct halves. The field dawdled through an opening lap of 92 seconds before the pace began to surge, with kilometre splits of 3:38, 3:13 and 3:26 keeping a lead pack of 13 together through 3km in 10:17. Davies and compatriot Lauren Ryan sat patiently at the back of the group as the field passed 5000m in 16:49.

Then Wanza went to work. The Kenyan broke the race apart with a 2:55 kilometre with seven laps remaining, opening a decent lead as Davies and Ryan clung to the back of the chase.

Rose Davies makes chase. Photo by Fred Etter.

But Davies never panicked. She reeled Wanza in with three laps to go, and went straight past.

“She went hard, so I was just hoping that she’d get tired and I could run her down,” Davies said.

“With three laps to go, I was close, so I thought, ‘You know, you can do it.’ I backed myself in the whole race.”
Rose Davies

From there the gap only grew. Davies closed her final kilometre in 2:47.1, the last 3km in 8:40.9 and the final lap in 65.6 to win by 11 seconds: a remarkable 16:50.8/14:48.5 negative split.

Ryan ran a solid race for fifth in 31:59.41, covering the second half in 15:07.

Davies came into the championships with the second-fastest personal best in the field (30:34.11), behind only Kenya’s Miriam Chebet, and said her form gave her the belief to commit when the race turned serious.

“I think I’m training really well and I’ve been racing really well, so I was just trying to bring my confidence into this race, and I think I did that.”

Told after the race that the 10,000m was the only athletics event in which an Australian woman had never won Commonwealth gold, Davies was delighted. “I’m so honoured. I just found that out today too — that’s so cool.”

Attention now turns to the 5000m, where Davies believes she is even better equipped. “I don’t run 10ks as often as 5ks, so I think I’m more confident in the 5km just because I’m more used to it. I’m hoping to bring this race into the end.”

Davies will line up in the 5000m as the second seed on PBs behind Kenya’s Caroline Nyaga in race that also includes Jess Hull and Linden Hall.

Silver to Muller

Silver for Ullrich Muller. Photo by Fred Etter

Ullrich Muller claimed silver in the T38 100m with an 11.19 season’s best behind England’s Thomas Young, who sets a Games Record at 11.11 (+0.2). Thomas McGough was fourth in 11.74.

Ullrich, who had a brain aneurysm at age 6, only recently took up sprinting at a high performance level.

“I’ve always had a passion for athletics and loved participating in school carnivals,” said the 20-year-old. “In 2021 (when he was aged 15), the school athletics coach noticed my potential and invited me to join his training squad. I always competed in the able-bodied events, even though my coach encouraged me to consider para-athletics.”

His interest in Para-sport was sparked only a few years ago.

“It was only watching the 2024 Paralympics that I decided to explored para-athletics. I received my National classification in October 2024 and my International classification in January 2025.”