Golds, Records, And Glory – A Historic Day At The Commonwealth Games

If you consider yourself a sports historian you’re going to want to take note of what happened today at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. A quick breakdown would be seven new Commonwealth Games records (not to mention of those several events some records were broken more than once today), two world records, and Scotland’s first swimming gold at a Commonwealth Games on their soil ever courtesy of Hannah Miley.

HANNAH MILEY BECOMES FIRST SCOTTISH ATHLETE TO WIN SWIMMING GOLD ON HOME SOIL

The women’s 400m IM race today was one of the greatest 400m IM races ever contested at the Commonwealth Games. Scotland native Hannah Miley broke the Games record this morning in prelims with a time of 4:38.83 and then came back in finals to take down England’s Aimee Willmott in an incredible head-to-head battle.

The repeat Commonwealth Games champion came home in a 4:31.76, breaking the Games record for the second time that day, and beating Willmott who finished second in 4:33.01 which broke the English national record. The race was incredible. Miley took it out strong on that first 100. She’s not exactly known for her strong butterfly legs but she was able to touch the wall in first after the 100m mark in a 1:02.52. Willmott came on strong in the backstroke and passed Miley. During the breaststroke, which Miley usually takes advantage in, she pulled up a little bit on Willmott but was still behind going into that last 100. Miley made the last 100 meters of the race look easy as she surged pass Willmott throwing down a 1:03.15 freestyle split in the process.

• MILEY – 1:02.52/1:09.68/1:16.41/1:03.15 – 4:31.76

• WILLMOTT – 1:02.72/1:08.54/1:16.45/1:04.32 – 4:33.01

Miley was not far off of her own Scottish national record of 4:31.33 with that swim posting a lifetime textile best. Coming home she was cheered on by a home crowd and became the first ever Scottish swimmer to win gold on home soil. Quite the achievement for the young swimmer, and a feat that will surely go down in history.

ROSS MURDOCH AND MICHAEL JAMIESON GO 1-2 IN 200m BREASTSTROKE FINAL

Scottish swimmers weren’t done just yet after that brilliant performance by Miley, as Richard Murdoch and hometown favorite Michael Jamieson stepped up on the blocks in the 200m breaststroke. Earlier in the morning Murdoch absolutely dominated the Games record with a chilling 2:08.78 performance, but what he did in finals absolutely exceeds that. The young Scotsman went into finals against two of the biggest names in breaststroke: Jamieson and Christian Sprenger. Coming off the 100m wall it was clear that Sprenger was in first, he was even on world record pace. After that it was all Murdoch as he took absolute control of the race turning first at the 150m wall. Jamieson was just a fraction of a second behind him at the turn, but Murdoch managed to pull away from the previous Scottish record holder and touch the wall in 2:07.30 just off of the world record held by Japanese swimmer Akihiro Yamaguchi.

• MURDOCH – 29.88/1:02.05 (31.17)/1:35.31 (32.66)/2:07.30 (31.99)

Michael Jamieson finished second in 2:08.40 slapping the icing right on the cake for the Scottish giving them a 1-2 finish in an event that had a huge focus due to the success of Jamieson in recent years.

AUSTRALIANS BREAK WORLD RECORD IN WOMENS 4x100m FREESTYLE RELAY

With an outstanding job this morning to break the Commonwealth Games record, the Australian women set themselves up perfectly to break the world record in finals by holding the worlds fastest freestyle sprinter Cate Campbell off of the prelims relay. The first hint that a record would fall was the anchor split of 52.47 done by Melanie Schlanger in prelims. Mix that in with all-star swimmers like Emma McKeon, Bronte Campbell and Cate Campbell and you’ve got the recipe for a world record relay.

As the clear favorites, the Australians won tonight, and yes they set a world record of 3:30.98 taking down the previous record held by the Netherlands. All swimmers besides Bronte Campbell, who swam the leadoff, were under 53 seconds (Campbell was still a 53.15 which is very fast for a leadoff). In that process, Bronte Campbell broke the 100m freestyle Games record that was set back in 2006 by Libby Lenton in 53.54. Her sister Cate threw down an unbelievable split of 52.16 to seal the deal and get her hand on the wall to smash the world records.

• AUSTRALIA 2014 – BRONTE CAMPBELL (53.15)/MELANIE SCHLANGER (52.76)/EMMA MCKEON (52.91)/CATE CAMPBELL (52.16) – 3:30.98

SEVERAL GAMES RECORDS AND A WORLD RECORD BROKEN

Within the utter domination came several other Commonwealth Games records that were broken.

Womens 50m Breaststroke- Alia Atkinson from Jamaica broke the Games record in the heats with a 30.49. She went on to break it again in semifinals with a 30.17 performance.

Womens 200m Freestyle- Siobhan-Marie O’Connor from England broke the Games record in the 200m freestyle heats posting a time of 1:56.58. One heat later Australian Emma McKeon broke the couple-minute-old record set by O’Connor by one one-hundredth of a second in 1:56.67. In finals, the top three swimmers were all under that mark, however the record went to Emma McKeon who won the event in 1:55.57. O’Connor was second in 1:55.82, Bronte Barratt was third in 1:56.62.

Mens 100m back- England’s Christopher Walker-Hebborn set a Games record of 53.30 this morning in the heats of the men’s 100m backstroke.

WORLD RECORD MENS PARA-SPORTS 100m FREESTYLE S9

In the men’s para-sport 100m freestyle S9, Australian Rowan Crothers set a new world record with a time of 54.58. The record he broke belonged to Matthew Cowdry who finished second in the race with a time of 56.33.

More Commonwealth Games action will commence tomorrow, to find out where and when you can see it click here.

View all of our Commonwealth Games coverage here.

Full results can be found here.