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Australia took their gold medal tally to five from eight swimming events at the Commonwealth Games yesterday after victories for Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Leiston Pickett. |
Fraser-Holmes beat off stiff competition from teammate Cameron McEvoy to win the men’s 200m freestyle in a time of 1min 45:08sec and was in line for a second gold of the night in the men’s 400m individual medley later.
There was disappointment, though, for Scotland’s Robbie Renwick as the defending champion finished down in fifth behind another Australian David McKeon. Pickett defended her 50m breaststroke title as Alia Atkinson just missed out on Jamaica’s first ever swimming gold at the Commonwealth Games. Corrie Scott increased Scotland’s medal tally in the pool to four as she took bronze.
“It’s good to get back on top,” said the 22-year-old Pickett, who becomes the first swimmer to retain a 50m breaststroke Commonwealth title. “I did all I could and reached for the finish. It’s really exciting that I’m still getting the speed I had a few years ago.”
Atkinson had set two Commonwealth Games records in qualifying, but despite failing to match those times in the final she still walked away with just Jamaica’s fourth ever Commonwealth swimming medal. Scott delighted the home crowd by keeping Scotland’s momentum in the pool going after a glorious first day of action, including two gold medals, on Thursday.
The 20-year-old edged England’s Sophie Taylor by one hundredth of a second and believes home advantage made the difference. “I’ve been working a lot on my strokes. I said at the start that the crowd would make the difference between a fourth and a bronze.”
Australia were expected to strike gold many more times before the night is out as the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team look to defend their title, whilst Alicia Coutts goes for a sixth Commonwealth gold medal in the 100m butterfly.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Proud claimed England’s first swimming gold of the Games and set a new Games record of 22:93sec in the process as he won the men’s 50m butterfly on Friday.
South African veteran Roland Schoeman took silver with his team-mate and 200m butterfly Olympic champion Chad le Clos in third. It was the second time in two days that Proud had beaten the Commonwealth record having also done so in qualifying on Thursday.
“I don’t know what to say. I just treated it like any other race, but now tears are almost in my eyes,” said the 19-year-old. And the more experienced Schoeman acknowledged he had been beaten by the better man.
“I knew it was going to be tough. Proud is a talented athlete,” said the 34-year-old. “I’m happy to get second.”
Earlier in the day, England’s Fran Halsall set a new Games record of 24:31sec in qualifying fastest for the semifinals of the women’s 50m freestyle ahead of Australian sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell.
The Campbell sisters had been part of the Aussie 4x100m freestyle relay team that broke the world record in claiming gold on Thursday and Bronte was first to break the Commonwealth record in the third heat of the day.
However, Halsall went 0:21sec better in the next heat and Cate Campbell just failed to break the record again in the final heat as she qualified second fastest just 0:02sec behind Halsall. “It’s pretty good, it’s my fastest time of the year so it was a nice way to start the Games,” said Halsall ahead of the semi-finals later last night. “Hopefully I can go faster tonight.”
Scotland’s Ross Murdoch also built on his dream opening day as just over 12 hours after claiming 200m breaststroke gold, he qualified second fastest for the 100m breaststroke semi-finals. “I took me a little bit of time to get over what I did last night and finally get some rest but I eventually got to sleep,” said Murdoch.
However, it was England’s Adam Peaty who comfortably led the world class field in the 100m breaststroke as he broke the Commonwealth Games record in a time of 59:47sec. Olympic champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa was back in fourth, whilst Australian world champion Christian Sprenger sneaked through as 11th fastest.
Michael Jamieson also recovered from his disappointment in finishing second behind Murdoch in the 200m final by qualifying for the 100m semis in 10th overall.
