Niamh Emerson relishing full-circle moment at Glasgow 2026

Niamh Emerson can barely believe she is completing a full-circle moment at Glasgow 2026, and it is hard to blame her.

Emerson looked to have the world at her feet as an 18-year-old, winning Commonwealth Games heptathlon bronze at Gold Coast 2018 before being crowned world junior champion later that year.

Emerson was being mentored by Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and rubbing shoulders with Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

Nothing is guaranteed in sport, but Emerson looked destined to follow in their illustrious footsteps before injuries derailed her progress.

Two knee surgeries and a further operation on her foot would have been too much for many but, eight years on from her incredible breakthrough, Emerson will make her return to major competition when the heptathlon gets underway at Glasgow 2026 on Tuesday.

Plenty has changed since Emerson burst onto the scene in 2018, but her unwavering resolve remains a big part of why she will toe the start line in Glasgow.

“It has been extremely hard,” she said. “The number of injuries I’ve had, with back-to-back surgeries, has been very difficult. It has been eight years since I was last in good form and competing.

“It has been eight years since I have done a heptathlon season, which is really painful to say, so I didn’t like to talk about it.

“I have healed that and I am here competing. I look back and think, ‘It’s eight years, that’s fine, onto the next’. Being here marks me being healed from how bad it was.

“There were so many instances where I thought I was giving up. I tried every single day but there were phases where I thought I can’t do it anymore.

“Those times of taking a step back helped me take a step forward and come back.”

Emerson’s perseverance has been coupled with a key change behind the scenes, with the 27-year-old finding fresh impetus under coach Aston Moore.

Moore also works with Johnson-Thompson, and Emerson has gone from being awestruck by the two-time Commonwealth champion at Gold Coast 2018 to becoming close friends and training partners.

Johnson-Thompson’s withdrawal from Glasgow 2026 allowed Emerson to enter, and she credits the Olympic silver medallist with helping her return to the international stage.

“I have changed set-ups a lot, and that marks me wanting to come back and keep trying and trying,” she said.

“Through it going wrong so many times, it can’t always go wrong. It can’t always mess up. It has been trial and error and a lot of help from my family and my new coach, Aston Moore.

“The big thing was training with Katarina Johnson-Thompson two years ago. She has been amazing.
“She said to me, ‘Niamh, just copy me’. So, for the first year, I just copied her. It was very difficult because she is so incredible.

“Then I built momentum and I could understand that I was close, but I was a few degrees out, which is massive in elite sport. Finding those few degrees from Kat and Aston has transformed me.”
Emerson returns to Team England eight years on from Gold Coast 2018, where she earned a surprise bronze medal.

Those remain core memories for the Derbyshire athlete and continue to fuel her competitive spirit.
“It was the best experience of my life and a big part of why I am here now because I was so inspired,” she reflected.

“I came third, which was not expected at all. I really did rise to the occasion. It was amazing.

“It was massive for me. It proved to me that you didn’t have to be ranked going in. Once you're on the start line, it’s anyone’s game.

“I think having that instilled in me as a young athlete is amazing now as a senior athlete, as I still believe the same thing.”

After so many years plugging away in the background, away from the limelight, Emerson completed her first heptathlon in almost eight years back in April.

That was a breakthrough moment, and she retained her fitness heading into the summer. Still, she could not believe it when the call from Team England came.

“Getting the call was incredible for me,” she said. “I was very much in denial.

“Despite how my career may have looked from the outside, I genuinely believed every single year that I was going to that championship. It is why I have carried on for so many years.

“Getting the call this time, I thought the same thing was happening again. There is an element of it not feeling real.”

Simply being on Tuesday’s start line is an incredible achievement for Emerson but, ever the athlete, she is ready to leave it all out there in Glasgow.

“I am a competitor, so I always want to do the most, which is potentially a fault of mine. I want to rise to the occasion,” she said.

“I am also just going to be super grateful that I am there, soak up the atmosphere and have fun.”