Lawnton and Deception Bay will be represented in Glasgow by three athletes taking different routes to the same Australian team: boxer Jye Dixon and para swimmers Lakeisha Patterson and Kirralee Hayes.
One will make his Commonwealth Games debut after 74 amateur bouts. Another will return to the city where her international swimming career began, while the third has regained her place on the Australian team after two years away from competitive swimming.
Their paths will meet at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will run from July 23 to August 2.
Lawnton and Deception Bay Paths to Glasgow
Dixon’s campaign has been built at All Star Boxing Academy in Lawnton, where he has trained since he was 12.
The 21-year-old Brendale resident will enter the men’s 55kg bantamweight division with 57 wins and 17 defeats. His record includes eight Queensland championships and seven Australian championships.
Dixon has also tested himself internationally, placing fifth at the Youth World Championships before reaching the quarter-finals of the Elite World Championships.
His 2026 preparation included World Boxing Cup events in Brazil and China. He recorded three wins across the two tournaments, defeating Andres Gabriel Cova, Daniel Girleanu and Gor Ayvazyan, while losing twice to Japan’s Rui Yamaguchi.
Dixon was awarded a Tier 2 scholarship through the Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s 2026 Scholarship and Mentoring Program. The support assists with sporting equipment and some of the financial demands of pursuing his boxing career.
His first Commonwealth Games contest could come during the round of 32 sessions on July 24 and 25. The division will progress through the knockout rounds before the final on August 1.
Patterson Returns to Her Starting Point
While Dixon is preparing for his first Games, Patterson will compete at her fourth.
The former Lawnton Swim Club athlete made her international debut as a teenager at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She finished third in the women’s 100m freestyle S8, collecting the first of her Commonwealth Games medals.
Four years later, Patterson won the 50m freestyle S8 and the 100m freestyle S9 at the Gold Coast Games. The results made her the first Australian female para swimmer to claim two gold medals at one Commonwealth Games.
She returned for Birmingham in 2022, finishing fifth in the women’s 200m individual medley SM10.
Known as Lucky, Patterson began swimming as part of her rehabilitation after being diagnosed with cerebral palsy. What started as a way to manage muscle stiffness developed into a career spanning Commonwealth Games, Paralympic Games and world championships.
Her strongest results have come in the 400m freestyle. Patterson won Paralympic gold in the S8 event at Rio in 2016 before taking the S9 title at Tokyo.
She later earned silver in the women’s 400m freestyle S9 at the 2024 Paris Paralympics and won the event at the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore.
Glasgow will bring her back to the shorter distance. Patterson will contest the women’s 100m freestyle S9, with the heats scheduled for July 29 and the final during the early hours of July 30 AEST.
Hayes Rebuilds Her Competitive Career
Deception Bay swimmer Kirralee Hayes will arrive in Glasgow after working her way back into international competition.
Hayes stepped away from competitive swimming between 2023 and 2025 while dealing with mental health and identity concerns. By April and May 2025, the drive to return had begun to build, and an invitation from a former coach helped bring her back to the pool.
The 22-year-old has been vision-impaired since birth and began competing at 11. She was a founding member of Genesis Aquatics at Genesis Christian College in Bray Park, where she trained with coach Rick Pendleton.
Hayes later joined coach Yuriy Vdovychenko at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra while continuing to work with Pendleton during visits to Brisbane.
Her first Paralympic appearance came in Tokyo, where she competed in two events but did not reach a final.
A year later, she collected her first international medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Hayes completed the women’s 50m freestyle S13 in 28.24 seconds to win bronze behind Australian teammate Katja Dedekind.
She will return to that event in Glasgow and will also contest the women’s 100m freestyle S13.
Hayes will be the first of the local trio to begin competing, with the 100m freestyle heats scheduled for July 24 and the final on July 25. Her 50m freestyle campaign will follow on July 28, with the final set for the early hours of July 29 AEST.
Dixon’s boxing competition is also scheduled to begin across July 24 and 25, while Patterson will complete the trio’s opening appearances when she enters the pool on July 29.
Published 20-July-2026
