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Volunteer Martin shares his Commonwealth Games experience

The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow brought together thousands from around the world to compete, volunteer and celebrate the international multi-sport event. During the Games, Martin Vernon, one of the volunteers from our Bellshill Club, gave up his time to be one of the event’s volunteers! 

For Martin the Commonwealth Games were the latest event he has supported after being involved in previous major sporting competitions taking place in Glasgow.

“This is the third major championships I’ve done recently. I volunteered at the World Indoor Athletics Championships and a few years ago I helped at the UCI World Championships. I just look to see where the opportunities are and make myself useful. I feel like I’m giving back a bit to society when I do, so I always look for opportunities like these, similar to when I joined the Bellshill Club for Sporting Memories.”

Martin was part of the volunteering team involved with the Boxing at the SEC Centre in Glasgow and he explained to us what he had to do and how it contrasted to his roles at previous events.

“It was a great and really worthwhile experience being part of the Games. I was allocated the role of Team Leader for a team supporting World Boxing – who are the governing body for amateur boxing.

“My duties as a volunteer involved allocating roles for other volunteers and ensuring all results were logged accurately and categorised into national and continental tables. I also had the opportunity to work across other teams supporting the running of the boxing programme, which ranged from helping with athlete services, looking after the rings, and the training services.

“For the Indoor Athletics I was actually assigned to the museum, so didn’t see of the action as such, but it was nice to see people explore the history of the sport and obviously Glasgow as well. For the Cycling championships I was mainly down at Glasgow Green and helped around the BMX events doing a few bits and pieces there, including hospitality which was quite fun.”

Martin was very active during the games which matches his personality and lifestyle. Last year Martin completed the London Marathon – in the process fundraising for Sporting Memories – as well going on to complete the Chicago Marathon a few months later. Martin explained the reasons why he is so active.

“I’m always running! I’m part of a running club locally so I’ve just been ticking over since Chicago and hoping to do a few smaller runs later in the year. I’ve already signed up to Great Scottish run in October, so I’m keeping going.

“I think you’ve got to keep going. I don’t like age being a barrier to what you can do. I’m 67 now but that won’t stop, nor has it ever stopped me. I’ve got a dog as well and take that out for an hour every day, so I like to keep myself active. I’m always on the go and I’m not good at sitting down and doing nothing if I’m honest with you!”

Before his next run, it’s back to supporting the Bellshill Sporting Memories Club and we wrapped up our chat with Martin by asking how much he enjoys his time with the Club.

“The sessions at Bellshill are good fun. We have a chat and then go round the table and do score predictions for the forthcoming weekend, run a couple of quizzes and then have a game of boccia at the end.

“The members seem to enjoy which is the main thing – we all have good banter and it’s fun to be a part of.”

Well done to Martin on his volunteering efforts and our Bellshill Club will look forward to hearing about his experiences of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games!