What happens to the equipmentonce the Commonwealth Games are over?
Up to 40% off official Eleiko equipment used at Glasgow 2026, now at Pullum Sports.
Shop the collectionThis summer, Eleiko supplied the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with all the equipment required for competitive weightlifting and para powerlifting events. Of course, this isn’t limited to the bars, discs, and platforms you see on-screen. Any event at the scale of the Commonwealth Games requires warm-up areas, training equipment, and proper storage.
Used by record-breaking British athletes such as Isabella Brown, Emily Campbell, and Madias Ngake, Eleiko’s equipment was ‘world-class’, according to Natalie Cunningham, Director of Sport at Glasgow 2026.
“World-class.”
Natalie Cunningham, Director of Sport at Glasgow 2026
Once the Games were over, it fell on a Scottish logistics company to remove the equipment from the SEC Armadillo, where the weightlifting and para powerlifting events took place.
With a warehouse full of equipment marked ‘Eleiko’, completely foreign to them, they did what any reasonable person would do and Googled: ‘Who in the UK knows what to do with a warehouse full of Eleiko equipment?’
Well… they probably didn’t use those exact words, but the bottom line is that they were directed to us: Pullum Sports, with over 50 years' experience handling Eleiko kit.
Sensibly, they reached out.
Our resident Eleiko expert, Andy, travelled up to Glasgow for a day to catalogue the equipment. A week later, crates upon crates of official Eleiko kit arrived on our doorstep.
And now? We have a warehouse full of Eleiko equipment.
Right now, it's not being put to very good use. Rather than helping athletes make record-breaking lifts, it's sitting in boxes, taking up space on our shelves. It would be quite a sad story if the bars and discs were sentient.
Fortunately, there's a happier ending.
We want to give this equipment a new home, where it can be put to good use by the next generation of lifters. So, we've reduced prices to clear the collection. You can now save up to 40% on a range of Eleiko bars, discs, storage, platforms, benches and more, all used by professional athletes in the Commonwealth Games.
Some pieces are limited edition, carrying the official Commonwealth Games logo and colours, and are only available at Pullum Sports. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
A few pieces from the collection
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Limited edition Eleiko 25kg Competition Plate £511.20£360.00 -
Limited edition Eleiko WPPO 50kg Competition Disc £2,119.20£1,059.60 -
Limited edition Eleiko Chalk Container, Commonwealth Games Branding £510.00£312.00 -
Limited edition Eleiko Weightlifting Competition Set, Commonwealth Games Branding £5,745.60£4,020.00
A (short) history of weightliftingin the Commonwealth Games
Weightlifting made its Commonwealth Games debut in Auckland in 1950, when the event was still known as the British Empire Games. It has featured at every edition since, becoming one of the competition's enduring sports. In 2006, it was designated a core sport, securing its place alongside athletics, swimming and other established disciplines.
- 1920Weightlifting joins the Olympic Games
- 1948London Olympics showcase the world's leading lifters
- 1950Debut at the British Empire Games in Auckland
- 2002Women's weightlifting and para powerlifting debut in Manchester
- 2006Designated a core sport
- 202620th appearance, in Glasgow
The sport's inclusion came at a time when competitive weightlifting was becoming increasingly organised on the international stage. It had featured in the Olympic Games since 1920, and the successful 1948 London Olympics provided a recent showcase for the world's leading lifters.
In Britain, William Pullum helped lay the foundations for competitive weightlifting, promoting standardised rules, technical knowledge and organised competition through his work with the British Amateur Weight-Lifters' Association (BAWLA), his instructional writing and his coaching at the Camberwell Weight Lifting Club. This work helped establish the sport in Britain in the decades leading up to its introduction at the British Empire Games in 1950, where one of Pullum's own pupils, Jim Halliday, went on to win gold in the lightweight category.
The 2002 Games in Manchester marked a significant step forward for inclusivity in weightlifting. They saw the introduction of women’s weightlifting and the debut of para powerlifting, opening the competition to a wider range of athletes. While it is disappointing that women’s weightlifting took so long to be included, both have since become established parts of the Games programme.
2026 was the 20th appearance of weightlifting in the Commonwealth Games, with a total of 168 athletes from 35 Commonwealth Games Associations competing across 16 weight categories.
In 1950, one of William Pullum’s pupils won gold in Auckland. Seventy-six years later, the kit from Glasgow has found its way to Pullum.
