Ellis Kottas was deprived of a medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games despite all but having her hands on silver at one point. The Kingston University student has said she was “low-key traumatised” to be removed from the podium in the women’s 1,500-metre wheelchair race, which had to be run a second time in Glasgow.
The women’s 1,500m T54 was first held on Wednesday evening at Scotstoun Stadium, where home favourite Melanie Woods finished first and set a new Games record. Kottas, 22, crossed the line in third place but was bumped up to silver when Canada’s Nandini Sharma was disqualified for her role in a first-corner crash involving Noemi Alphonse of Mauritius and Australian Eliza Ault-Connell. Following an appeal from the Team Australia and Mauritian camps, para-athletics authorities decided to stage the race for a second time on Friday morning. Kottas, who crashed into a wall as a result of the opening-lap chaos in the first edition, ended up placing fourth in the re-run.
Glaswegian Woods topped the podium a second time and still set a new Commonwealth Games record. However, Team England and Kottas left the race empty-handed.
In an Instagram post following the first running of the race, Kottas wrote: “I’m sure that most of you are aware of the crash that impacted half of the athletes (I didn’t expect my commonwealth debut to be me crashing into the wall!) but I continued and took bronze.
“Unfortunately the crash was deemed to have been caused by an athlete who has since been disqualified (hence the silver) but the para-athletics authorities have decided to rerun the race.
“While I’m lowkey traumatised, if I’m going to medal I want to do so on my own merit, so I will go out and give it all I’ve got. If I don’t medal so be it, I’ll still have the incredible memories of lifting that England flag.”
Sadly, that was all she’d take from the race after finishing outside the medal places. Despite the disappointment, Kottas maintained an upbeat attitude after the race and appeared cheerful when conducting interviews.
Jonny Riall, Chef de Mission for Team England, said he and his staff had “strongly challenged” the decision to hold the race a second time. He noted there was no formal protest process available to them despite no gestures to halt the first race post-crash.
“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,” he said. “Ellis and the team therefore proceeded on the understanding that all competition procedures had been completed and the result confirmed.
“Our priority is the wellbeing of our athletes. We will now do everything we can to support Ellis during the extremely short turnaround between receiving this news and being asked to race again.”
Woods, meanwhile, said the nature of the re-run race “dampened the excitement” of her triumph. However, she went on to joke that if called back for a third running of the race, she’s “not doing it.”