'Like Mother, Like Son': Taylor's Outside-Smoker Gamble Pays Off
"You've always got a chance when you're in the race, and I just went out there with no fear. I figured I could either swim it like I did and risk not being able to bring it home, or always wonder what might have happened if I'd have gone out hard." - Kai Taylor
Got a few words for us? Dean Boxall ducked behind the barrier and was gone... now words for the waiting Aussie scribblers. And then he change d his mind, popped back into view and said: "Like mother, like son".
Spot on: Kai Taylor had pulled off an audacious outside-smoker of a mission impossible to triumph in the 200m freestyle here at Tollcross International against the cream of Britain's 4x200m freestyle heroes, albeit racing for home nations and not in the form of their lives.
Just like his mother Hayley Lewis had at her World Championship debut at Perth 1991 in the same event, the 200m freestyle, Taylor, on his Commonwealth debut, caught every one on the hop with a blistering opening gambit in lane 1 (it was lane 8 for his mum when she toppled the rest at a home champs 35 years ago).
Out in 50.02, the 22 year-old coached by Boxall at St Peters Western, was 0.1 inside the pace set by Paul Bidermann in a shiny suit on his was to a 1:42 world-record victory and World title at the Rome circus of 43 global standard in eight days back in 2009.
Biedermann had a non-textile bounce to come in his bodysuit, so splits times are not as comparable as they might be Nonetheless, 50.02 is 'blistering' - and it left Taylor almost to seconds ahead of the pack, which included the two GBR 4x200 heroes who would make it a snap for silver 0.5sec behind the Australian by the close of battle.
As it turned out, Taylor had done enough to hold on. And in the mixed zone, he said just that:
"If you've got a lane, you've got a chance. I managed to get myself into the final tonight after a bit of a slow swim this morning, but you've always got a chance when you're in the race, and I just went out there with no fear. I figured I could either swim it like I did and risk not being able to bring it home, or always wonder what might have happened if I'd have gone out hard."
So, hard it was - especially for the rest.
The drama started much earlier in the day, Taylor not the only one who "had a bit of a slow swim" in heats.
Scotland's Duncan Scott missed the cut in 10th. So, no defence. The race had been billed as the showstopper featuring up to six of Britain’s 4x200m freestyle Olympic gold medalists at the past two Games, In the end, half the Glasgow final was made up of Brits racing for four home nations, with three Aussies and a Kiwi in the fray.
Two of the Brits were a rare snap for silver: Matt Richards, for Wales, and James Guy, for England, who have both stood on Olympic, World and European podiums in their careers, but this day belonged to Taylor.
Taylor's mum, Hayley Lewis, set the pattern for her son 22 years before he was born: she surprised a much-more experienced field in the 200 free final at Perth 1991, the first post-GDR-era global gathering, to beat American superstar Janet Evans and Danish 'fly ace Mette Jacobsen in 2:00.48 to their respective 2:00.67 and 2:00.93.
In victory, Taylor became the 11th Australian to win the title since 1968 Olympic champion Mike Wenden claimed the inaugural crown in 1970 - and stopped a load of firsts that might have been:
James Guy might have been the first Englishman to win the title since Ross Davenport in 2006. And there's this kind of history with its firsts and nearly firsts:
Matt Richards might have been the first Welshman to in the 200m title since it joined the Commonwealth program in 1970. Indeed, the only other Welsh medal winner was Calum Jarvis, who claimed bronze in 2014, and in 2021 at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics bagged gold in the 4x200m freestyle when he helped place the Great Britain quartet featuring then teenage Richards in the final. Those relay achievements made Richards and Jarvis, who married Britain teammate Jemma Lowe, the first Welshmen to claim Olympic g old in swimming in more than 100 years. Paul Radmilovic had been the last one to do so, the Cardiff native who also won gold in the 4x200m freestyle at the 1908 Olympics in London (before water polo golds in 1908, 1912 and 1920).
And, a medal for Jack McMillan would have been the first ever for Northern Ireland in the 200m free.
All left to be a first another day, another year, and the swings and roundabouts of how any swimmer on any given day decides to take on a race and do it his or her way.
James Guy has been at the game for a long time now. He was faster today at 30 that he was back in 2014 - and second today, not sixth as he was back then, just a year before he claimed the 400m free World title ahead of a storm gathering, Sun Yang*, and finished second to the same opponent t in the 200m.
Today, he emerged from a race that delivered a 16th carer Commonwealth podium,, part of the greatest pantheon of relays honours for Britain and England in swimming history, and possibly the biggest all-sports haul among English athletes in Commonwealth competition (I'd have to check, but its there or very close), to say:
"Individually it’s great - my first individual medal [in the 200m] since… 2015. 11 years ago. I’m now 30. Time wise it wasn't where we want to be. I think based off this morning, maybe used too much juice. Probably 1min 45.6 might have been a bit much.
"I love my swimming career, I’ll do it for as long as i can. When I'm racing I'm that nine year old James Guy. I'll keep going until I can't do it any more or I get beat. The most important thing is you have to love the sport. The second thing is doing the right work for you. The training that will get the best out of myself. That's having a great coach [Ryan Livingstone in Manchester]. I’m 30, married, we have to balance life properly. I love swimming and love what i do.
Was it just as easy to get up early every day?
Yes. I wake up, morning coffee, take the dog out for a wee and a poo, get in the go to the pool. That’s 6.45am. It's me that does that every day."
A little more from James will be added to this file later...
In other finals:
Craig Lord
Craig Lord
Craig Lord
