| 2022 Commonwealth Games |
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| Hosts: Birmingham Dates: 28 July to 8 August |
| Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV with extra streams on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport mobile app. |
The Commonwealth Games bring some of the world’s biggest sport stars to Birmingham this summer.
Here is a selection of six superstars to look out for getting business done in Brum.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (athletics)
She is a two-time Olympic champion. A five-time world champion. But Jamaican great Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has never landed the Commonwealth Games 100m title.
This is surely her last chance. The 35-year-old missed the 2018 Games after the birth of her son, opted to run only the relay in 2014 and was serving a six-month drugs suspension in 2010.
She is running as fast as ever now. She clocked a new personal best of 10.6 seconds in August, has run the four fastest times of 2022 so far and beat the world’s best at the World Championships in Eugene earlier this month.
Her competition will be stiff but familiar. Compatriots Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who did the sprint double at the Tokyo Olympics last year, are also in a star-studded team.
Gretel Bueta (netball)
World number ones Australia are still smarting from their dramatic 52-51 defeat by England in the final on the Gold Coast four years ago. Gretel Bueta will be key to the campaign to reclaim gold.
The 29-year-old comes from an impressive sporting family with brothers Kurt and Joel playing top-level Australian rules football.
Initially it seemed as if 6ft 3in (1.91m) Gretel’s own career would be in basketball. She played in the under-19s Basketball World Cup but fell ill and out of the sport, before taking up netball, at first for the social side.
It soon got more serious. Bueta won the Liz Ellis Diamond, awarded to Australia’s best player, in 2019. She took a break to start a family in 2020 and was back on court four months after giving birth to son Bobby.
When Australia beat England in the Quad Series final in London in January, Bueta was named player of the match and the tournament after returning a sky-high 98% shooting success rate in their decisive victory.
Manpreet Singh (hockey)
Born to a farming family in rural Punjab, Manpreet Singh used to be locked in his room by his brother to prevent him escaping chores by heading out to play hockey.
The 30-year-old overcame that sibling rivalry to become arguably the best player in the world.
He was named the best male player in the world in 2019. Last summer, he led India to their first Olympic medal in more than 40 years. This year, he is top scorer in the FIH Pro League with 18 goals in 16 games.
Australia, Olympic silver medallists, are the only team in the competition ranked higher than India in Birmingham.
Singh’s first big-tournament experience came in the UK as a 20-year-old member of the India squad that competed at the London 2012 Olympics.
Ariarne Titmus (swimming)
Four years ago, on the Gold Coast, a 17-year-old Ariarne Titmus announced herself as a emerging force.
Juggling homework commitments and host-nation expectation, Titmus won three golds and a silver. In the wake of her success, the Australian said she would temper her celebrations, knowing the work she had to do to close the gap on American legend Katie Ledecky.
By the Tokyo Olympics last summer, mission improbable was achieved as Titmus beat the then 400m freestyle world record holder to gold.
Titmus also took the 200m freestyle title. However, there is already a young pretender to her throne.
Fifteen-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh took world silver in the 400m freestyle earlier this year. Their duel will be one of the most keenly anticipated in the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.
Flora Duffy (triathlon)
Flora Duffy’s CV is impeccable. Defending Commonwealth champion? Check. Reigning Olympic gold medallist? Check. World titles? Three of them, thanks very much.
She even has her own landmark in her native Bermuda, with Corkscrew Hill renamed in her honour following her win in Tokyo.
So why is the 34-year-old not favourite to strike gold again in Sutton Park?
In June, Duffy was a distant seventh – her lowest race finish in four years – at the Leeds leg of the World Championship Series (WCS).
She explained afterwards that her training had been hindered by a bout of Covid-19 – her second. She promised to train hard and come back stronger in Birmingham.
She has plenty of grit to go with the glittering medal collection. In 2018, in the aftermath of her Gold Coast win, Duffy suffered a foot injury that could have ended her career. It took her out of contention for two years before she fought back to the top of the sport.
The battle with England’s Georgia Taylor-Brown, who leads the WCS standings and finished second behind Duffy in Tokyo, should be immense.
Samu Kerevi (rugby sevens)
One of the most dynamic and powerful centres in world rugby. Samu Kerevi is not switching to sevens on a whim.
The 28-year-old was also part of Australia’s seven-a-side specialists for the Tokyo Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals before defeat by eventual gold medallists Fiji.
The 2021 World Player of the Year nominee now plays his club rugby in Japan as well, turning out for Suntory Sungoliath in Tokyo. However, he has already had plenty of practice against English opposition this summer, starting all three of the Wallabies’ Tests against England.
Kerevi had an eventful childhood, taking in other Commonwealth nations. He was born in Fiji, but left for the Solomon Islands aged seven to escape the crime that other members of his extended family were involved in. However, a military coup in the Solomon Islands soon forced young Kerevi to move again.
The plane he boarded in search of asylum was set to travel to New Zealand, but stopped in Australia, where he ended up staying and thriving.
