The home nations won a total of eight medals in the pool on the opening day of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, including four gold for Team England.
Team England led the charge with Aimee Willmott, as she clinched the first swimming gold of the Games.
Willmott went in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley and served up a strong swim and a powerful final 50 metres and clinched the Commonwealth title.
Hannah Miley (Scotland) claimed the silver and they were joined on the podium by Australia’s Blair Evans who took bronze.
Also in the Women’s 400m IM was English swimmer Abbie Wood, she finished the race ranked sixth overall.
The Men’s 400m Freestyle final served up a stellar swim from James Guy (England), he claimed the bronze behind Mack Horton and Jack McLoughlin of Australia, gold and silver respectively for them.
Daniel Jervis of Team Wales was just off a podium finish in fourth and Stephen Milne Scotland was placed eighth.
Team England’s Eleanor Faulkner was nudged out of the medals as she ranked fourth in the Women’s 200m Freestyle final, teammate and Games debutant Holly Hibbott was fifth.
Scotland’s Lucy Hope was placed eighth after the four-lap race of the Optus Aquatics Centre pool.
The medals went to Taylor Ruck of Canada (gold), Ariarne Titmus of Australia (silver) and compatriot Emma McKeon (bronze).
Tom Hamer (England) set a new World record of 1:55.88 on the way to his gold medal and Commonwealth title in the Men’s S14 200m Freestyle final. Manchester-based Hamer controlled the race from start to finish and was flanked on the podium by Australians Liam Schulter and Daniel Fox.
With just four athletes entered into the Women’s S6/7 50m Butterfly, only gold and silver medals were up for contention but that didn’t faze England’s Eleanor Robinson (S6).
The Paralympic Champion powered to victory and was accompanied on the Gold Coast podium by Canada’s Sarah Mehain (S7).
James Wilby stole the show in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke and claimed Team England’s fourth gold medal of the night in the pool.
Wilby was seventh with 100m to go and third heading into the last 50m. He stormed through to touch just 0.27 seconds ahead of Scotland’s defending champion Ross Murdoch who finished with silver. Bronze went to Australia’s Matt Wilson.
Team England rounded off the home nation medals in the pool on the opening day of Gold Coast 2018 racing as they claimed bronze in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle.
Australia took the title in front of a packed crowd at the Optus Aquatic Arena in a world-record time of 3:30.05.
Canada took the silver while England’s team of Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, Freya Anderson, Anna Hopkin and Ellie Faulkner held position throughout the race to comfortably take bronze.The opening night of finals saw plenty of home nation swimmers in semi-finals action.
In the Men’s 50m Butterfly there were four nations represented in the form of Scotland’s Sean Campsie and Scott Mclay, Northern Ireland’s Calum Bain and Jacob Peters (England).
However it was only Peters that booked himself into tomorrow night’s 50m fly splash and dash showdown under the spotlights as he continued an impressive Games debut.
Sarah Vasey (England) was the solo qualifier for the Women’s 50m Breaststroke final tomorrow after a total of six swimmers including Chloe Tutton (Wales), Corrie Scott (Scotland) and Molly Renshaw (England) took to the water.
Team England and National Centre Loughborough-based Luke Greenbank is the fastest home nation qualifier in the Men’s 100m Backstroke final, he’ll be joined by Xavier Castelli of Wales and Conor Ferguson of Northern Ireland.
Craig McNally (Scotland), Elliot Clogg (England), Thomas Hollingsworth (Guernsey) and Harry Shalamon (Jersey) all missed out on making the final.
The Isle of Man swimmer Charlotte Atkinson is one of two British athletes returning for the Women’s 100m Butterfly final tomorrow.
Atkinson will be joined in the two lap race by Welsh swimmer Alys Thomas to decide the medals and Commonwealth title.
Harriet Jones and Harriet West both of Team Wales, Emily Large and Laura Stephens of Team England and Keanna Macinnes Scotland did not progress after their semi-final swims.
For the full set of results and times from the opening day of racing click here