Australia continues dominance in Commonwealth swimming

Carter won Trinidad and Tobago’s first ever Commonwealth Games swimming medal, a silver in the 50m butterfly. The women’s 4x100m freestyle relay on the first night of competition (Thursday 5 April) showed the depth of talent in women’s sprinting in Australia, with the quartet of Shayna JACK, Bronte Campbell, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell combining to break a world record (3:30.05). Cate Campbell, Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeon were the most successful Australian female swimmers. Campbell leaves with two individual (50m freestyle and 50m butterfly) and one relay golds, and new Games records in both events. She could not continue her golden run in the 100m freestyle, where her sister Bronte Campbell edged her out for the gold. Titmus has three gold medals from the 400m and 800m freestyle and the 4x200m freestyle relay. McKeon won the 100m butterfly gold, three relay golds and a bronze in the 200m butterfly. In the Para swimming events, Lakeisha Patterson (AUS), Sophie Pascoe (NZL) and Timothy Disken (AUS) were double gold medallists. Patterson, who swims in S8 classification races, achieved the remarkable feat of winning a higher classification race, the S9 100m freestyle, as well as the S8 50m freestyle. In the S9 100m freestyle, Patterson shaved .94 seconds off her S8 100m freestyle world record time. Disken won the SB8 100m breaststroke and S9 100m freestyle, Patterson the S8 50m freestyle and S9 100m freestyle, and Pascoe the SB9 100m breaststroke and SM10 200m individual medley. The second world record set in the GC2018 pool was also in Para-swimming, with England’s Thomas Hamer breaking his own record in the S14 200m freestyle. Kylie Masse the 100m and 200m backstroke titles. Her rivalry with Australian Emily Seebohm was one of the highlights and Seebohm was finally able to get the better of the Canadian on the last night of competition (10 April) in winning the 50m backstroke. Her gold was Australia’s 300th Commonwealth Games gold medal in swimming. England’s breaststroke world champion Adam Peaty continued his unbeaten record in the 100m breaststroke but was pipped for gold in the 50m breaststroke by South Africa’s Cameron Van Der Burgh. Peaty’s teammate James Wilby won a medal of each colour in the breaststroke races – gold in the 200m, silver in the 100m and bronze in the 50m. England dominated the women’s individual medley events with Siobhan Marie O’Connor defending her 200m title and Aimee Willmott winning the 400m individual medley. Ben Proud (ENG) also successfully defended his title in the 50m freestyle. The other major upset of the swimming competition was Duncan Scott (SCO) beating Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers (AUS) in the men’s 100m freestyle. Chalmers and Le Clos finished in a dead heat for second. Scott was another breakthrough performer of GC2018, winning silver in the 200m individual medley and four bronze medals for Scotland in addition to his sprint title. [gallery link="none" size="large" ids="26937,26938,26939,26940,26941,26942,26943" orderby="rand"]]]>