Australia, I can tell you that it’s time to start wrapping your head around some of the names and faces that are about to represent our country in the track-and-field events.

Because many of them are scorching hot medal chances in Glasgow.

And just six years out from an Olympic Games on our home soil, this is their launch pad.

For established athletes, the Commonwealth Games carries a whole lot of legacy, a whole lot of pride and a chance to wear the green-and-gold and go out there just like Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman and Susie O’Neill did before them. It’s time to create new legends.

For our new athletes, the Commonwealth Games are where international careers truly begin. It’s a chance to wear the green and gold on a major stage in front of 74 nations, gain invaluable international experience and announce yourself to the sporting world. And with Brisbane 2032 on the horizon, there’s every chance we’ll be watching the next generation of Olympic stars.

More than anything, you get a chance to show what you’re made of.

Australia’s golden generation of track and field has been emerging for a number of years. Now this is the strongest track and field team, by far, we have assembled.

I’m not just saying that to pump it up. Legitimately, across the board this team has never been stronger.

Sprints, relays, middle-distance and field events. We have genuine medal chances – and some favourites – in all of them.

We’ve never had so much diversity and depth across both male and female events. We could win a medal in a dozen different events here.

How’s this for an incredible prospect. We could have two Australian athletes on the podium after the men’s 100-metre final and a national record smashed on the big stage.

Eddie Nketia holds the national record for New Zealand, but he’s also been competing in the US in college events and last year swapped his allegiances to Australia. He already has the Aussie all-conditions record at 9.74 seconds (that’s ridiculously fast, even with a huge tailwind).

You talk about new faces, no one really knows who he is. He spent most of his life in Canberra, competed for New Zealand because his father, Gus, was a former record holder there and now he’s going to be wearing the green and gold and pushing for a medal in Glasgow.

Then of course there’s Lachie Kennedy. He is still our fastest 100-metre runner. He ran 9.96 back-to-back at the national champions, even though the conditions weren’t perfect. He can definitely run faster and break Patrick Johnson’s Aussie record of 9.93. If he does that, he would be on the podium too.

When you add in Rohan Browning, Josh Azzopardi and Chris Ius, we also have a relay team that might not just be pushing for a medal, but pushing for gold in the men’s 4x100.

It’s not just the 100. Obviously, Gout Gout won’t be at these Games, but we have a guy called Aidan Murphy who finished second at the national championships behind Gout and would have broken the national record if Gout wasn’t there. He’s the second-fastest Aussie of all-time in both the 200 and 400m will push for medals in both the 200m and the 4x100m relay

The beloved West Aussie Peter Bol is in the best shape he has ever been tackling the 800m. The past couple of Olympics haven’t gone the way he’d like, but he’s just become the fastest Aussie to run 1k – a record which was 12 years old. He’s fit, his endurance is good, he’s looking super fast and he’s a real shot at the gold after becoming a silver medallist at Birmingham four years ago.

Jess Hull is exactly the same. Her 1500m prowess is going to be formidable. She won’t have it all her own way because the Brits have a really good team over that distance, as do the African and Caribbean nations. It’s going to be competitive, but she’s an Olympic silver medallist.

In the 800, we’ve got a runner called Sarah Billings who broke Hull’s record just three weeks ago. That’s another name we’re going to know and love by the time these Games are finished.

Speaking of records, Cam Myers just broke our mile record and the 1500m mark for Aussies. That belonged to Olli Hoare, who is the defending Commonwealth Games champion. The time Myers ran, 3.28:00 is the 12th fastest 1500m run of all time. He’s not just good in Australia, he’s bloody good – and he’s only 20 years old.

Then there’s 15-year-old Lexie Brown who makes her Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow. A lower-arm amputee, Lexie wasn’t even born when Cathy Freeman did what she did at Sydney 2000, but after her grandmother showed her the vision as a young girl, she was inspired. Now, she has the chance to make history herself.

Our gold medal hopes aren’t limited to the track.

Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson are both stars and will go head-to-head in the women’s high jump and obviously, there is WA’s own Olympic gold medallist Nina Kennedy in the pole vault.

But no one is heading to Glasgow hotter than another West Aussie, Kurtis Marschall. He just did the unthinkable and beat Swedish pole vault king Mondo du Plantis at his own game, in his own home.

Du Plantis hadn’t been beaten by anyone for six years before that. Marschall did it at the Stockholm Grand Prix — his own backyard.

Marschall will have a red-hot crack at a third-straight Commonwealth Games gold medal, a remarkable achievement.

All these Australian records are fantastic, but discus legend Matt Denny is knocking on the door of a world record.

At previous events we have had maybe half-a-dozen medal potentials. I have never seen anything like this.

Get ready for a special week for Australian athletics.