Ben Jefferies gets late call-up to England Commonwealth Games team

Ben Jefferies is set to compete in the heats of the mixed 4x400m relay on Friday after a late call-up to the England team at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The 26-year-old Bristol West AC athlete was catapulted into the England team last weekend after original pick Charlie Dobson withdrew injured.

I heard about the election last Friday after I received messages from some of the boys in Glasgow asking for my number saying someone wanted to call me explained Jefferies. It's a privilege At the start of the year I thought the Commonwealths would be something I might miss out on due to the selection deadlines as I had set my sights set on producing my best at the UK Championships.

Jefferies had originally missed the selection deadline for Glasgow despite beating Dobson to finish runner-up to Matt Hudson-Smith in the Novuna UK Championships, a result that secured his place in the GB team for the European Championships. The championships, which will take place in Birmingham from August 10-16, was Jefferies priority for the summer but when the England call came he had no hesitation in accepting the offer. He caught a plane up to Scotland on Tuesday to meet his team-mates and get kitted out.

Jefferies will make his Games debut in the heats of the mixed 4x400m relay with the final scheduled for tomorrow at 9.20pm. I am not sure about the line-up but this track is fast added Jefferies. It will be more race experience for me and that's something I had lacked previously in my career.

The Bristol-born athlete, who left his family home for Iowa in America to pursue his athletics ambitions, was also in the GB mixed relay squad at the 2024 Olympics in Paris but had to watch from the sidelines as his team-mates stormed to a fabulous bronze at the Stade de France Stadium in a British record of 3mins 08.01secs. The competition won't be quite as intense in Glasgow so Jefferies and his England colleague will certainly be hoping to make the podium.