Short Leads Aussie Sweep With Another Test Of Thorpedo Speed As Dolphins Leap Again
Australian champion Sam Short, who grew up dreaming of surpassing Ian Thorpe's 2002 World record (still as World textile best until last year) races inside the mark until last length; Elijah Winnington & Ben Goedemans Make It A Dolphin podium 0.01sec apart.
Sam Short shadowed the 400m freestyle pace of Ian Thorpe once more today in Glasgow before the legend's 2002 pace escaped him down the last length, the consolation golden: Australia now has a third member of the double-champion's club in Commonwealth waters over eight laps.
The clock stopped at 3:41.24 after Short, 23, had turned for home 0.33sec inside the last split in Thorpe's then World-record 3:40.08 shockwave of a victory at Manchester 2002 Commonwealths.
To Australia's delight, 2022 World champion Elijah Winnington, for silver in 3:45.56, and Ben Goedemans, piled home together, bronze the price of 0.01sec, the reward a sweep that kept at bay England's James Guy and Northern Ireland's Dan Wiffen.
There were two more golds for Australia in the first four finals of day 2, Mollie O'Callaghan taking the n200m freestyle crown to extend her bull run of international honours in that event; and Alexandria Perkins claiming gold in the 50m butterfly.
The 400m free was the swim the tested the clock with the hardest edge. The title was won in the second fastest time ever at a Commonwealth Games, the club of men to have retained the crown unshaken, Winnington the defender switching places with Short, the silver medalist of 2022: Canadian Ryan Cochrane in 2014 was the last to achieve the feat after Thorpe's double unfolded in 1998 and 2002, while the first two titles in the event went to another Australian, Noel "Tiger" Ryan, in 1930 and 1934 over 440 yards at the "Empire Games".
Thorpe's standard survives yet another Games. It would be shiny suit 2009 before 0.01sec was shaved off the mark by Germany's Paul Biedermann in a shiny suit at the Rome circus of 43 global standards went down in non-textile bodysuits in just eight days.
The suits were sunk on January 1, 2010, and it would be 2025 before Thorpe's World best would finally be felled, another German, Paris 2024 Olympic champion Lukas Märtens becoming the first man ever to race inside 3:40 last year:
Craig Lord
Short, coached by Damien Jones at Rackley S.C. in Brisbane, laid down yet another way of attacking Thorpe's pace today. The pattern fell in between his Fukuoka World-title swim of 3:40.68 in 2023 and his 3:40.67 at trials in Sydney last month, but ended in a time hand a second slower, his last length a telling 27.66 in yet another race with no closer rival than the clock.
How Short has tried to pace a 400 free inside Thorpe's tempo:
- 52.28; 1:47.33; 2:43.69; 3:40.67 - 2006 - Short, Sydney Trials, 2026
- 53.58; 1:49.29; 2:45.49; 3:40.68 - 2023 - Short, World title, Fukuoka
- 53.07; 1:48.73 2:45.10; 3:41.24 - 2026 - Short, Commonwealth title, Glasgow
Nicole Jeffery
And the last three World records:
- 51.90; 1:47.55; 2:44.01; 3:39.96 (55.95) - Lukas Märtens GER - Stockholm 2025
- 54.42/1:51.02/2:47.17/3:40.07 (52.90) - Paul Biedermann GER - Rome 2009
- 53.02; 1:49.57; 2:45.43; 3:40.08 - Ian Thorpe AUS - Manchester 2002
Quotes will be added to this file later: readers registered for Newsletters can click on the browser link in the email for updated versions of the files.
Women's 200m freestyle
Mollie O'Callaghan extended her bull run of 200m free titles with victory in 1:54.66 for her first Commonwealth solo gold in the event four years after she claimed her first solo gold, in the 100m in Birmingham. In between Commonwealths, O'Callaghan has claimed the Fukuoka 2023 World title, then the Paris 2024 Olympic crown, before staging a successful defence of the global title last year in Singapore.
With a faster split down the third of four lengths, Lani Pallister, 400m champion yesterday, challenged her teammate and training partner at St Peters Western, where Dean Boxall is the head coach, but the O'Callaghan brought the race home a touch harder to claim gold.
The bronze went to Erika Fairweather in a Kiwi national records of 1:55.24, half a second ahead of England's Freya Colbert:
O'Callaghan revealed a serious medical issue on the eve of the Games, but was ultimately given the all-clear to travel to Glasgow ( that story in our heats file):
Craig Lord
Reaction to follow.
Men's 50m backstroke
It was gold for World 100m backstroke champion Pieter Coetze in a dashing Games record of 24.18, 0.3sec ahead of England's Oliver Morgan, with Ruard van Renen granting South Africa a second bite of the cherry, his bronze secured in 24.51, locking out England's Jack Sherry by 0.17.
Reaction to follow.
Women's 50m butterfly
Alex Perkins picked up Australia's fifth gold in the 50m 'fly since its introduction to the program in 2002. The two titles that got away went to the only swimmer ever to retain the crown, England's Fran Halsall, champion in 2010 and 2014. Perkins clocked 25.37 to fend off South African Erin Gallagher by 0.2, New Zealand's Hazel Ouwehand claiming bronze in 25.76. Halsall's Games record of 25.20 from 2014 lives to fight another Games.
