Chris Bennett reached the grand old age of 36 and had never once cried over his sport.
That all changed earlier this year when Scotland’s top hammer thrower didn’t just shed a tear, he openly admits he “sobbed like a baby” over, as he puts it, throwing a metal ball.
His outpouring of emotions, although somewhat unexpected, was totally understandable.
Bennett retired from athletics in 2023 having represented GB numerous times, including at the 2016 Olympic Games. However, late last year, the Glaswegian felt a desire to compete again and so he picked up a hammer with the pipe dream of making it into Team Scotland for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
That pipe dream became a realistic prospect, though, in March. Bennett had returned to athletics with the hope he could challenge for a place in Team Scotland for this summer’s Commonwealth Games but he was well aware he was being hugely optimistic, perhaps even delusional, in believing he could get anywhere close to making the team. But despite acknowledging that Commonwealth selection was, at best, a remote possibility, Bennett just knew he had to give athletics one last try.
“When I retired a few years ago, I just wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was sitting there thinking, I've done everything I could ever have dreamed of and more and I never wanted to be that person who hangs on too long,” Bennett recalls.
“In 2023, I just thought, I think I want to do this anymore. My retirement was quite gradual and I was still training, but with no real purpose.
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“I put on a load of weight, too - I was 164kgs, so I was chunky. I wasn't fit.
“I was just enjoying life without that pressure to compete.
“But back in December, I wanted to throw just to see what it felt like but I was told I wasn't allowed access to the facility.
“So I was like actually, I’m going to come back and throw again. And then I thought, maybe I could have a go at Glasgow. I remember sitting down one day and thinking, could I look myself in the eye when it gets to this summer, knowing that I could possibly have been there but didn’t try?
"So I thought, let's have a try. I had no idea if I’d even get close but I felt like it’d be fine trying and not making it. But to not even put the effort in? I don't think I could have dealt with that.”
As it’s turned out, Bennett’s dream wasn’t quite as unrealistic as he initially thought. In March, in just his fifth competitive appearance back, he threw 70.03m at a competition in England, exceeding Team Scotland’s Commonwealth Games standard by 27cm. And it was this throw that resulted in him shedding tears over athletics for the first time in his life.
“When I did that throw, I thought that feels nice. But when I saw the distance, I was gone - I broke down and was crying my eyes out,” he says.
“It's the first time I've ever cried when competing. I was just like, wow, you've done it.
“It was such a weight off my shoulders. But I knew that was the bare minimum and that I still had to do more to actually get selection.”
Scotland’s athletics team for Glasgow 2026 will be selected next week, although it won’t be officially announced until later this month. Bennett will compete in Sweden today in what will be his final attempt to persuade the selectors that he’s worthy of a spot in the squad for Glasgow 2026 and while he’s content in the knowledge that he’s done all he can over the past six months, he has allowed his mind to ponder what it would be like to make it to his his fourth and, he insists, final Commonwealth Games. Competing at Glasgow 2026 would, he firmly believes, make for the perfect ending to his career.
“I just don't know how selection is going to go. If I don't get selected, of course I'll be disappointed, but I think I'll be content with myself because I've given it everything,” he says thoughtfully.
“At the last three Commonwealth Games, I've gone there wanting to win a medal. But this time, if I’m there, I don't care nearly as much about the result - I just want to be at the Commonwealth Games.
“The chances of me winning a medal this time around are probably not as high as they were in Glasgow, Birmingham or Gold Coast, so I'm not putting that pressure on myself.
“I just want to go and have fun and perform to the best of my ability. And the great thing is my friends and family will get to see me in what would be my last ever competition. It's a nostalgic thing for me because I grew up two miles from Scotstoun (where the athletics will be held at Glasgow 2026).
“Not many people in sport get the perfect ending, but that would be the perfect ending for me.”
