On the second day of the swimming finals, it was Team England who led the way with home nation medals with two gold and two silver. Scotland claimed a further silver and two bronze.
Alice Tai of Team England claimed Team England’s 100th swimming gold medal as she touched home first in the Women’s S9 100m Backstroke.
Tai, who trains at the British Para-Swimming National Performance Centre in Manchester was joined on the podium by Ellie Cole of Australia in silver and compatriot Ashleigh McConnell in bronze.
Team England’s Sarah Vasey served up a big swim in the Women 50m Breaststroke to take the Commonwealth title and gold at her debut Games.
The Loughborough-based swimmer pushed the 2014 defending champion Alia Atkinson of Jamaica into silver. Bronze went to Leiston Pickett of Australia.
Para-Swimmer Lewis White (England) was nudged into second by Australia’s Timothy Disken in the Men’s S9 100m Freestyle. They were joined on the podium by another Australian, Brenden Hall who claimed the bronze.
Jacob Leach (England) put in a gutsy swim to set a new personal best of 24.00 in the Men’s 50m Butterfly final and finished seventh overall.
Team Scotland’s Mark Szaranek challenged Australian Clyde Lewis all the way to the wall in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley final and lowered his personal best to 4:13.72
Clyde held of the attack and Szaranek picked up another silver medal for Scotland. Bronze went to New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt.
The Men’s 4x100m Freestyle served up a real treat for the capacity crowd at the Optus Aquatics Centre. Host nation Australia pulled away early and held onto gold for the whole race leaving silver and bronze up for contention.
Team England’s quartet of David Cumberlidge, Ben Proud, Jarvis Parkinson and James Guy won the silver just ahead of Scotland, who were represented by Duncan Scott, Jack Thorpe, Kieran McGuckin and Stephen Milne.
The Men’s 200m Freestyle Final saw four Brits take to the pool and Team Scotland’s Duncan Scott powered through in the closing metres of the race and took bronze.
Scott joined Australian’s Kyle Chalmers and Mack Horton on the podium, they took gold and silver respectively.
James Guy (England) finished fourth, with Welsh swimmer Calum Jarvis ranked fifth at the close of the race and Stephen Milne rounded of the 200m Freestyle final eighth.
Gold went to South Africa’s Chad Le Clos, Silver was claimed by Dylan Carter of Trinidad and Tobago, and bronze also went to a South African, Ryan Coetzee.
All three medals in the Women’s 100m Butterfly went to Australia, with the top ranked home nation swimmer, Charlotte Atkinson of the Isle of Man finishing in fifth and Alys Thomas (Wales) touched home in seventh.
England’s Luke Greenbank was just of the medal position pace in the Men’s 100m Backstroke, he ranked fourth at the end of the race with Xavier Castelli of Wales in fifth. Northern Ireland’s Conor Ferguson delivered a gutsy swim and placed eighth overall.
It was a new Games record for Olympic Champion Adam Peaty (England) of 58.59 making him the fastest qualifier for the final tomorrow and will take lane four in the floodlit arena.
He’ll be joined by fellow Englishmen and 2018 Commonwealth 200m Breaststroke champion James Wilby, Ross Murdoch and Craig Benson of Team Scotland have also booked lanes for the two-lap title showdown.
Bath-based Andrew Willis (England) rounds off the home nation line-up of five British swimmers in the 100m Breaststroke final.
Anna Hopkin of Team England booked her place in the Women’s 50m Freestyle final tomorrow, teammate Jessica Jackson just missed out on a finals place.
Northern Ireland’s Danielle Hill qualified in eighth to take the remaining berth in the 50m Freestyle title decider.
Georgia Davies of Team Wales swam a comfortable semi-final and qualified fifth fastest in to the Women’s 100m Backstroke final.
The final lane in the Women’s 100m Backstroke final had to be decided at the end of the finals session between two home nation athletes, Kathleen Dawson of Scotland and Elizabeth Simmonds of England.
It was Dawson who came out on top by just 0.07 of second and claimed the final lane in the final tomorrow.
Jessica Fullalove and Anna Maine of England, Cassie Wild of Scotland and Danielle Hill of Northern Ireland missed out on a place, they ranked 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th respectively.