Papers prepared for a meeting of a Glasgow City Council committee appear to confirm the proposed dates of the 2026 Commonwealth Games – and the inclusion of track cycling in the reduced programme.

The city’s Administration Committee will consider a report next week from the Chief Executive, which indicates that the Games will take place from July 23 until August 2.

This squeezes into the narrow gap between football’s World Cup Final on July 19, and the end of the city’s school summer holidays on August 12. It also avoids the European Athletics Championships, due to take place in Birmingham from August 10-16.

The report does not list the 10 sports which will feature at the Games: but it does specifically list ‘Emirates Arena/ Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome’ as one of the four city venues hosting events.

That’s the closest we have come to public confirmation that track cycling will feature – although as we have noted previously, given the presence of a world-class track in the city, and strong medal hopes for Scottish riders like Jack Carlin, it would be a real shock if it had been omitted.

However, it looks like road cycling will not appear in the programme. The report states: ‘Competition would be contained within the venue footprint, with no road-based events.’ There had been speculation that bike races and the marathon would be too costly and disruptive, when a priority for the organisers is to demonstrate an ‘innovative (and) more sustainable event proposition’ – meaning, in practice, lower-cost.

Commonwealth political leaders will be gathering in Samoa in a week’s time for their Heads Of Government Meeting. It would seem like the perfect opportunity to announce that the Games will go ahead.