Commonwealth Games: England's Ben Proud wins 50m freestyle gold and relay silver
- Published
- comments
Commonwealth Games: Proud storms to 50m freestyle gold
2018 Commonwealth Games |
|---|
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 |
Ben Proud successfully defended his 50m freestyle title at the Commonwealth Games before helping England win silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay.
Proud's team-mates Holly Hibbott and Ellie Faulkner won silver and bronze in the women's 400m freestyle.
Scot Duncan Scott won 200m individual medley silver and Wales' Daniel Jervis finished second in the 1500m freestyle.
Georgia Davies took 50m backstroke bronze before helping Wales come third in the women's 4x100m medley relay.
Proud, 23, had set a new Games record of 21.30 seconds in Monday's semi-finals before clocking 21.35 in the final.
"I'm in the shape of my life," he said. "There's no reason why I can't be breaking 21.3. I want to push the boundaries and see what I can do."
Davies, 27, was unable to retain her title from Glasgow 2014 as Australia's Emily Seebohm won gold.
Scott's medal was his sixth on Australia's Gold Coast, capped by 100m freestyle gold as the 20-year-old became Scotland's most decorated athlete at a single Commonwealth Games.
England finished second in the swimming medal table with nine golds and 24 overall, with Scotland sixth and Wales seventh.
Proud prevails
Proud proved too strong for South Africa's Bradley Tandy and Australia's Cameron McEvoy, who took silver and bronze respectively.
English team-mate David Cumberlidge finished fourth, missing out on bronze by eight hundredths of a second.
Commonwealth Games: Australia pip England in thrilling medley relay
Proud came within touching distance of securing another gold in the 4x100m medley relay, beaten by Kyle Chalmers in the final leg as Australia won by nine one hundredths of a second.
That saw the host nation finish with 28 golds in the pool and 73 swimming medals overall.
Earlier in the Games, Proud was disqualified in his 50m butterfly heat for a false start, moments after setting what would have been a new Games record, and he said he was apprehensive heading into the freestyle.
"Obviously before the race I was being a little bit reserved, waiting for the starting signal and making sure there was no account of whatever, so I could get through the heat," he said.
"As soon as I hit the water I knew I was safe. I didn't hold back or anything. It's just a morning swim. I wasn't putting in any emotion so I'm really happy with that."
Analysis - Proud could become a dominant force
BBC Olympic reporter Nick Hope
As the defending champion and a world medallist in both the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle, Ben Proud had expected to be the standout sprinter of Gold Coast 2018.
His controversial disqualification in the 50m fly denied him the chance of multiple individual honours and there were definitely a few nerves tonight in the 50m freestyle final, but the Turkey-based swimmer delivered what he needed.
His time of 21.35 was marginally slower than his time in the semi-finals but as his coach told me earlier "this will mean so much to him," after struggling to recover mentally from his shock DQ.
Proud - who's 23 - is a real 50m Olympic freestyle medal contender for Tokyo 2020 and given sprinters usually peak in their late 20s, he could go on to become a dominant force over the coming years.
- Published11 April 2018
