Is there a more overrated “championship” than Commonwealth Games?

US NCAA, high school or any US internal meet.

I'm sick of people on here saying "OMG, Jim Bob Crocket just won the college 3 mile race"

No one cares. The participants will never be heard of again

People go on like we should all stop what we're doing as Hicksville State take on Redneck University in an indoor meet that means nothing to anyone

Euros a damn sight better & more competitive than the US Champs. Pan American Games might be a joke, but European Champs are not.

Empire/Commonwealth Games = Glorification of colonialism. Surprised Trumster hasn't thought up of starting a US equivalent in his MAGA Golden Age of offical US Colonialism.

as an englishman, i would have no problem in the commonwealths being removed from the calender

most events are a truly abysmal standard. there were 15 starters in the marathon at the last edition. the 10km was good because McColgan had a good race against a Z grade Kenyan but none of the best athletes turn up and behind these you had numerous donkeys running 34mins.

granted, the 1500m was a rare exception which was a classic race but largely, the races are strung out, mediocer affairs. no one wants to host it anymore and you can only pick a certain number of athletes per nation leading to small fields. total waste of time these days, stick it in the bin

+1

Considering you can risk to compete against the best athletes from Kenya, Uganda, The UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and more it can be very strong fields. At times almost as strong as at the WC and the OG.

Well, runners placing secondarily in the Euro indoor champs 2025 have between them won 4 DL races (2x 1500m, one mile and one 5000m)

The "Z grade" Kenyan WON the World XC Championships....

Same pool at trials as 94 Comm Games. Perkins set the 800 & 1500 WR in the same race. 2006 Pan Pacs also there and several WR set then including Phelps.

Yes. The baseball 'world' series.

Somehow I don't think an "American empire games" of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Kosovo, and others would be widely attended.

The entire common wealth of this "commonwealth" is less than the wealth of china let alone the USA.

England is beaten, why are these little countries still hanging around it? Come to America, Kenya. You could be a state, vote for president.

You've got like 40 million people, right up there with California, New York, Texas. You'd get a ton of seats in Congress.

It used to be a really big deal. Jipcho's triple (5 races) was amazing but got overshadowed by Filbert Bayi's world record. Many soon-to-be enrolled in American colleges. Gordon Minty, Josh Kimeto, Suleiman Nyambui, Mike Boit, Randal Markey,

1/25/74 10000m
1. 27:46.4 Dick Taylor NZL
2. 27:48.6 Dave Black ENG
3. 27:57.0 Richard Juma KEN
4. 28:18.8 Dave Bedford ENG
5. 28:14.8 Dan Shaughnessy CAN
6. 28:17.2 Ian Stewart SCO
7. 28:28.6 Tony Simmons ENG
8. 28:44.6 Gordon Minty WAL
9. 28:52.6 Paul Mose KEN

1/26/74 3000m Steeplechase
1. 8:20.67 Ben Jipcho KEN
2. 8:24.8 John Davies WAL
3. 8:28.5 Evans Mogaka KEN
4. 8:29.6 John Bicourt ENG
5. 8:35.2 Euan Robertson NZL
6. 8:36.2 Bernard Hayward WAL
7. 8:40.4 Stephan Hollings ENG
8. 8:41.4 Amos Biwott KEN

1/27/74 5000m Heats
1.1 13:42.6 Josh Kimeto KEN
1.2 13:57.2 Ian Stewart SCO
1.3 13:57.2 Ben Jipcho KEN
1.4 13:57.2 Bryan Rose NZL
1.5 13:59.9 Dave Black ENG
1.6 14:18.4 Mustafa Musa UGA

2.1 13:45.6 Brendan Foster ENG
2.2 13:46.0 Suleiman Nyambui TAN
2.3 13:46.1 Dave Fitzsimons AUS
2.4 13:50.2 Paul Mose KEN
2.5 13:59.2 Gordon Minty WAL
2.6 13:59.2 Dave Bedford ENG

1/27/74 800m Semifinals
1/29/74 800m Final
1. 1:43.91 GR John Kipkurgat KEN
2. 1:44.39 Mike Boit KEN
3. 1:44.92 John Walker NZL
4. 1:45.32 Filbert Bayi TAN
5. 1:45.97 Andy Carter ENG
6. 1:46.75 Bill Hooker AUS
7. 1:47.66 Daniel Omwanza KEN
8. 1:48.90 Phil Lewis WAL

1/29/74 5000m Final
1. 13:14.4 GR Ben Jipcho KEN
2. 13:14.6 Brendan Foster ENG
3. 13:23.5 Dave Black ENG
4. 13:34.9 Suleiman Nyambui TAN
5. 13:40.3 Ian Stewart SCO
6. 13:42.8 Dave Fitzsimons AUS
7. 13:43.6 Josh Kimeto
8. 13:45.4 Gordon Minty WAL
9. 13:54.4 Paul Mose KEN
10. 14:00.9 Bryan Rose NZL
11. 14:18.7 Dave Bedford ENG
12. 14:25.3 Mustafa Musa UGA

1/31/74 1500 Heats
1.1 3:44.6 Mike Boit KEN
1.2 3:44.6 Graham Crouch AUS
1.3 3:44.6 Rod Dixon NZL
1.4 3:44.9 Brendan Foster ENG

2.1 3:38.2 Filbert Bayi TAN
2.2 3:39.8 John Kirkbride ENG
2.3 3:39.9 Dave Fitzsimons AUS
2.4 3:40.3 Tony Polhill NZL

3.1 3:42.5 John Walker NZL
3.2 3:42.6 Suleiman Nyambui TAN
3.3 3:42.7 Randal Markey AUS
3.4 3:43.6 Ben Jipcho KEN

2/2/74 1500 Final
1. 3:32.16 WR Filbert Bayi TAN
2. 3:32.52 NR John Walker NZL
3. 3:33.16 Ben Jipcho KEN
4. 3:33.89 Rod Dixon NZL
5. 3:34.22 NR Graham Crouch AUS
6. 3:36.84 Mike Boit KEN
7. 3:37.64 Brendan Foster ENG
8. 3:39.64 Suleiman Nyambui TAN
9. 3:41.30 Dave Fitzsimons AUS
10. 3:41.91 John Kirkbride ENG
11. 3:44.56 Randal Markey AUS

It's what it is . I don't see how it's overrated

It's a step below the global championships for obvious reasons

Really depends on the year.

2018 Gold Coast 5000m was an epic kick off between Ahmed and Cheptegei for gold. Those two then went silver and gold respectively in the Tokyo Olympics.

2022 saw Moraa edge Hodgkinson which were the top two in Budapest 2023.

As people have pointed out, 2022 Hoare beat the 2019, 2022, and 2023 world champs to get gold.

Same year Muir had to beat Mageean who was only one second off Kipyegon in Zurich (beating Wetelji and Tsegay in the process) the next month.

Those are all excellent performances with fantastic athletes that I am happy were on the calendar. 2022 the crowds were electric too.

One of the most exciting wins and best bit of sports commentary ever: 4 x 400m Women final Delhi 2010

Nonsense.

They are not overrated at all.

So when has anyone ever cared about the Pan Ams? OK, I get it, you're being sarcastic? Pan Ams suck, so maybe they're rated correctly.

Turkey Trots mean more than the Pan Ams.

Not a bad idea. The “preferred Tariff rate games”. All countries with a Tariff rate below X% get to participate.

CWGs should be quite a big deal next year with no global champs. Hopefully, top Jamaicans will show up for the sprints. They're also making some positive decisions like switching the 1500 to a mile, which is a point of difference with other champs, and getting rid of the marathon, which always had extremely weak fields.

And it does matter as an event in many countries. I saw someone post in another thread that Jakob shouldn't do Euros because it doesn't matter, but it actually does to people over here. I get that there's no American interest, but the rest of the world can have nice things, too. Most of the world doesn't have a stake in the NCAA champs, but it would be arrogant to say it doesn't matter because it clearly does to Americans

Not sarcastic at all.

Who ever has ranked them high? They are not overrated at all - maybe you don't understand the word "overrated"?