Commonwealth Games: Duncan Scott and Siobhan-Marie O'Connor claim swimming gold
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2018 Commonwealth Games |
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Venue: Gold Coast, Australia Dates: 4-15 April |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV and Red Button with extra streams on Connected TVs, BBC Sport website and app; listen on Radio 5 live; follow text updates online. Times and channels |
Scotland's Duncan Scott and England's Siobhan-Marie O'Connor both won Commonwealth Games gold medals in the pool at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre.
Scott, 20, finished in a time of 48.02 seconds to edge out South Africa's Chad le Clos (48.15) as he claimed a shock victory in the 100m freestyle.
Australia's Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers took bronze in 48.15.
O'Connor, 22, won the 200m individual medley final with a dominant display to retain her title.
She secured victory in a time of two minutes 9.80 seconds, winning the race by a body length.
O'Connor was the only swimmer to go under 2:10, with Sarah Darcel taking the silver medal and her Canadian team-mate Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson bronze.
England's Alice Tai produced a lifetime best to claim silver in the women's S9 100m freestyle in 1:03.07. Lakeisha Patterson of Australia took gold.
Scott makes history
Scott's victory added to his bronze medals in the 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.
"I did what I do best in bringing it home," he told BBC Sport.
"I'm absolutely delighted my family's here. It's a dream for me for them to see that. I'm so happy.
"So far, so good. It's very exciting for two years' time after beating the Olympic champion. I'm delighted to swim that fast."
The victory meant he drew level with Gregor Tait - in Melbourne 2006 - as only the second Scottish swimmer to win four medals at the same Commonwealth Games.
Glasgow-born Scott then eclipsed Tait's milestone when he added a bronze in Scotland's 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Scott won bronze alongside Daniel Wallace, Mark Szaranek and Stephen Milne.
Relay silver for England
A superb final leg from James Guy also helped England's 4x200 freestyle relay team win silver as they beat Scotland to second spot.
Nicholas Grainger, Jarvis Parkinson and Cameron Kurle were the other members of the team as they finishes second to Australia, who won with a Games record time of seven minutes 05.97.
Guy also secured his place in the final of 100m butterfly after winning his semi-final - ahead of Le Clos - in 52.34.
He is joined in the final by compatriot Jacob Peters, Wales' Calum Jarvis and Sean Campsie of Scotland.
Guy's main rival could be Australian Grant Irvine after he swam the quickest in the semi-finals with a time of 51.87.
'I want to get gold for my nan!'
England's Adam Peaty booked his place in the final of the 50m breaststroke with a comfortable victory.
Peaty eased home in 26.49 ahead of compatriot James Wilby, who has already won 200m breaststroke gold, and 100m breaststroke silver behind Peaty.
"That's the first race I've been relaxed. I went out there for pure enjoyment and not the time," Peaty said.
"I've been putting pressure on myself and you've got to find that enjoyment in the race. The expectation I put on myself is where the pressure comes from.
"My nan's been tweeting me all week so I hope I can get that gold for her tomorrow."
Analysis - Scott a huge prospect for Tokyo
Nick Hope, BBC Sport, on the Gold Coast
Such has been the success of the likes of Adam Peaty, James Guy and Ben Proud in the past few years, the progress of Duncan Scott has been almost overlooked.
He is still only 20 years old and was an integral part of the British silver medal-winning freestyle and medley relay teams at Rio 2016, but is now starting show just what he's capable as an individual force.
I covered his breakthrough event at the Baku European Games in early 2015 and his talent was clear. Just months later he was part of the 4x200m World Championship gold medal-winning team but only raced in the heats and insists he learned a lot from that experience.
He is a huge prospect for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics and already one of Scotland's most successful Commonwealth swimmers of all time.
- Published11 April 2018