Cam McEvoy stormed to gold in the 50m freestyle final on Sunday night, clocking a Commonwealth Games record of 20.97 seconds. The sprint ace went under 21 seconds for only the second time, continuing his remarkable swimming renaissance after a sabbatical and overhauled training. McEvoy led an Australian medal sweep in the event, one of five swimming golds on day three, and now looks to defend his Olympic title at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
“It [gold] is really good, but I’m more excited about ducking under the 21-second barrier,” McEvoy said. “A double whammy for me. It was a really good night.” He added: “I really wanted to prove to myself that I can consistently get under that [21 seconds]. So to do that for a second time, that brings me a lot of confidence for the world championships next year, LA, moving forward.”
Pallister dominates 1500m
Lani Pallister remained untouchable in distance freestyle, turning the 1500m into a personal time trial and winning by nearly 18 seconds. It was her second Glasgow gold after taking the 400m on day one, as the women’s 1500m made its Commonwealth Games debut.
Relay gold and Anderson’s emotional win
Australia’s men’s 4x200m freestyle team of Sam Short, Harry Turner, Ed Sommerville and Kai Taylor clocked 7:01.47 to break the Games record set in Birmingham, with Taylor’s blistering anchor leg delivering the gold. Iona Anderson won the 100m backstroke and had an emotional hug with her Scottish grandmother, wearing tartan nails as a nod to her heritage. Tim Hodge successfully defended his 100m backstroke S9 title. Australian swimmers have 16 gold medals after three days.
Matthew Temple suffered defeat to Canadian Josh Liendo in the 100m butterfly final by one one-hundredth of a second. Liendo clocked 50.42, Temple 50.43, with Ben Armbruster taking bronze.
Scott wins gymnastics silver
Breanna Scott won individual all-around silver in Glasgow, inspired by teammate Georgia Godwin. Canadian Ellie Black took gold, with Lia-Monica Fontaine bronze. Godwin finished fifth. “It’s pretty crazy. I don’t really think it’s sunk in yet,” Scott said. “There’s been so much that’s happened in the last 24 hours.” She credited Godwin and Black: “They’re both like such great role models. Georgia is like basically all of our idols in the team.” Scott scored 13.900 on beam and 12.800 on floor to surge into medal contention.
