Stars of the past, present and future come together for Commonwealth Day celebrations at the Birmingham 2022 venue which is nearing completion

As proud members of Birchfield Harriers, Sarah McDonald and Rhiana Burrell both know the club’s Alexander Stadium home better than most. They’ve never known it like this, however.

To celebrate Commonwealth day on Monday (March 14), a number of Birchfield’s stars of the past, present and future – as well as a number of local schoolchildren – got their first look inside a venue which has been completely transformed and is nearing completion as it prepares to host the athletics action at the Commonwealth Games in August.

The stadium will house up to 30,000 spectators at each Games session, before reverting to a permanent capacity of around 18,000.

For 18-year-old multi-eventer Burrell, the 2022 Games will come a little too soon. But, having watched the stadium transform before her eyes thanks to regular visits to the British Athletics High Performance Centre which forms part of the complex, she admitted that being able to step back on to the track – her “second home” – was inspirational as she instead sets her sights on selection for 2026.

“I’ve trained on the track since I was 12 so this means a lot,” said the teenager who was born and brought up in Birmingham and recently finished fifth in the high jump at the UK Indoor Championships. “I basically live on the track – it’s like a second home – so the change in the facilities is going to be revolutionary.

“I saw when the [old] Nelson and Knowles Stands got knocked down and I was quite sad about that and, because I’ve been training quite a lot at the High Performance Centre, I’ve seen it only from the outside. But, to get a look inside now… it doesn’t disappoint.

“It’s accelerated my drive, I’d say. It makes me want to be better and train harder.”

For McDonald, 1500m finalist at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, it was her first visit back to the Alexander Stadium since the British Championships of 2019.

“It’s unrecognisable,” said the 28-year-old. “I haven’t seen it in progress at all so it was good to see the before and after. [The Games] still feel a long way away right now but it’s really good to be here and to visualise it.”

Being selected for England at Birmingham 2022, as well as securing a place on the British team bound for the World Championships in Eugene, is at the top of McDonald’s priority list for the year ahead. Having recently made the move to join the Boston-based New Balance training group under coach Mark Coogan, and back to full health after injury problems, inspiration is not in short supply for her, either.

“There are a lot of really great girls in that group to help me push on and I’m really glad that I made the change,” she said of her new set-up. “I think the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships are huge so they’ll be my priority to try to qualify for and make the team.”

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This redevelopment has not just been done with the present in mind, though. The aim is for long-lasting change and McDonald added: “I think there will be a huge legacy to this going forward and hopefully it will help bring more people into the sport.

“It would be great if it could host a major [athletics] championships in future, too. Obviously for Birchfield it was pretty rundown before so it’s really good to see a brand new stadium here and I hope it will help grow the club.”