Commonwealth Games 2026: Mullarkey misses out on second medal of the week

Team Isle of Man’s David Mullarkey couldn’t quite repeat his bronze-medal winning heroics of earlier in the week as he finished 11th in Saturday evening’s 5,000 metres race.

The 26 year old, who on Tuesday had won the island’s first ever Commonwealth Games athletics medal, finished a more than respectable 11th place at a sunny, if breezy, Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.

Clocking a time of 13 minutes 32.36 seconds, the former Castle Rushen student was in contention for a second top-three finish of the meeting until the final 600m when the the leading pack broke clear.

Kenya's Mathew Kipsang eventually claimed gold from the 10,000m race's top two of Ky Richardson (Australia) and Gulver Singh (India).

Mullarkey was in reflective mood following the race admitting he couldn’t contend with the leaders’ late change up in pace, especially after his exertions earlier in the week. He said: ‘The pace was kind of all over the place.

‘It was really inconsistent, but that's championship racing.

‘We saw it in the 10K the other day as well. When you're coming in on tired legs, you kind of hope for the smoothest ride possible, which we didn't get.

‘But you know, that's championship running. It's unpredictable, which is why everyone comes and watches.’

Looking back to his historic success earlier in the meeting, Mullarkey said it had perhaps taken more out of him than he first thought: ‘I think everyone talks about the physical toll of of doing these doubles and it's very hard physically, and we do everything we can to counter that, but the mental and emotional side is draining.

‘If it's super successful or super bad, it's kind of hard to come back down to earth and recompose and come again.

‘But I felt like I did a great job and it’s always tough when when you're competing at this level.

‘Tuesday was my second fastest 10k ever, so to come back and be competitive again until the last 600 metres is a big improvement from where we were four years ago [at the Birmingham Games].’

It was announced last week that the Manxman, who is now based in Flagstaff in Arizona, had been picked to represent Great Britain in the 10,000m race at the forthcoming European Championships in Birmingham.

Looking ahead to the race, which takes place on the evening of Saturday, August 15, Mullarkey said that his performances at the Commonwealths had given him a timely boost ahead of that: ‘I know that I can be competitive, but now I need to think tactically how I'm going to race the Europeans.

‘I’ve got a few weeks to get the legs back under me, and yeah, hopefully feel a little better than I did today.

‘I'm confident that'll be the case.’

- Mullarkey’s Isle of Man team-mate Christa Cain followed up her run in Thursday evening’s 5,000m race by setting a new 10km personal best on the roads of Berlin on Saturday evening.

Cain, who flew to Germany on Friday morning, ran a time of 34 minutes 19 seconds.