On the final night of Gold Coast 2018 swimming, England’s Ben Proud powered to victory and took gold in the Men’s 50m Freestyle.
Proud who set a new British and Games record in the semi-final went into the race as the fastest man and did not disappoint as he soared to victory in another lightning fast swim and successfully defended his Commonwealth title under the Optus Aquatic Centre floodlights.
The silver went to Bradley Tandy of South Africa and the bronze to Australian Cameron McEvoy.
Proud’s Gold Coast title makes him only the third man ever to defend the Men’s 50m Freestyle Commonwealth title, the others were England’s Mark Foster and South Africa’s Roland Shoeman.
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games 'Home Nation Highlight'
— British Swimming (@britishswimming) April 16, 2018
Another ⚡️ fast swim by Ben Proud!
He’s one of only three men to defend their 50m Free Commonwealth title! 💪🏻#GC2018pic.twitter.com/1pZE31Cmub
The 50m free final also featured David Cumberlidge and Thomas Fannon, both of England, who finished fourth and eighth respectively.
After being squeezed out of the medals in the 800m free yesterday, England’s Holly Hibbott came back and served another cracking swim and took silver in the Women’s 400m Freestyle to raise the curtain on the finals session, lowering her personal best by almost a second to 4:05.31. She was joined on the podium by fellow Team England swimmer Eleanor Faulkner who posted a time of 4:07.35 and collected bronze.
The gold medal went to Ariarne Titmus of Australia in a new Games record of 4:00.93. Scotland’s Camilla Hattersley also went in the final and finished seventh.
Duncan Scott (Scotland) claimed yet another Gold Coast 2018 medal, this time in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley. Scott found himself in the middle of an Australian gold and bronze, Mitch Larkin and Clyde Lewis, taking the medals.
Scotland’s Mark Szaranek touched in fourth but a blistering breaststroke and freestyle leg almost brought him into medal contention. Also swimming for Scotland was Dan Wallace who finished sixth overall with Wales’ Xavier Castelli bringing the field home in eighth.
Daniel Jervis of Wales improved on his Glasgow 2014 result in Men’s 1500m Freestyle and took silver setting a new life time best 14:48.67. The gold medal went to Australia’s Jack McLoughlin and his teammate Mack Horton finished third and sealed the bronze medal.
Team England’s relay quartet were pipped to the post by Australia in the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay final and finished with the silver medal.
Luke Greenbank led out the team on the backstroke leg, with 100m Breaststroke Champion Adam Peaty taking over for the Breaststroke, James Guy served up a stellar two laps of butterfly and fresh from his 50m free gold, Ben Proud brought the team home with a lightning fast final leg in an enthralling race.
The bronze medal went to South Africa. Scotland’s quartet of Craig McNally, Ross Murdoch, Mark Szaranek and Duncan Scott were fourth.
Georgia Davies won Team Wales’ first bronze of the night in the final of the Women’s 50m Backstroke. She joined Australia’s Emily Seebohm, who took gold, and Canada’s Kylie Masse, in silver, on the podium.
Scotland had three women in the 50m Backstroke, Cassie Wild was fifth, Kathleen Dawson finished sixth and Lucy Hope in eighth.
Wales won the bronze medal in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay behind Canada who took silver, with gold going to Australia.
Georgia Davies went out on the opening leg, Chloe Tutton took over the race on the breaststroke leg, Alys Thomas following her surprise 200m fly victory swam the penultimate leg and Kat Greenslade brought the team home to seal the third place finish.
England’s team of Elizabeth Simmonds, Sarah Vasey, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Anna Hopkin finished in fourth, just under a second off the podium.
Niamh Robinson, Laura Kinley, Charlotte Atkinson and Stephanie Brew of the Isle of Man ranked eighth at the end of the four leg final.
The final Para-Swimming event of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games was the Men’s S9 100m Backstroke and featured three home nation swimmers.
Jacob Leach (England) was the highest rank athlete at the close of the race in fifth and posted a new personal best time of 1:06.59. Teammate Lewis White also swam a new best time of 1:07.25 and finished behind Leach in sixth.
Northern Ireland’s Barry McClement’s finished eighth.After six days of Gold Coast 2018 Swimming here is how the final medal looks:
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