Aussie guys get gold ... finally

The Australian men finally took gold in the swimming at the Commonwealth Games, with the men’s 4x100m medley relay team winning the final event of the meet at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre tonight.

Earlier in the night the men won a silver and two bronze, but it was left up to the medley relay team to redeem the Aussie guys’ efforts at these Games as the girls won 16 gold before the men finally broke through.

While Matthew Cowdrey had won two gold medals for Australia in the EAD (elite athletes with a disability) events, the non-disabled males had come short time after time... until tonight.

The team of Matthew Welsh, Brenton Rickard, Michael Klim and Eamon Sullivan weren’t the favourites coming into tonight’s 4x100m medley relay final, but they won in a Games record of 3 minutes and 34.37 seconds.

Welsh led the team in the backstroke, and while he led after 50m it was the English through Liam Tancock that hit the wall in front after the first leg.

But breaststroker Rickard put the Aussies back in front with a gritty swim following his silver-medal performance earlier in the night.

Rickard had given the Australians the slightest of leads at the end of his leg, but hometown lad Klim was a man on a mission and as soon as he had surfaced from the changeover, the Aussies had a significant break.

Klim charged through the water and after his butterfly leg gave Sullivan more than a length to work with on the final freestyle leg.

It looked after 50m that Sullivan could be caught by England’s Ross Davenport, but with only half a lap to go he had put the Briton away and ended up winning by more than a body length over England and Scotland.

Welsh, who earlier in the games won a silver medal and came fourth, said that he was relieved that the guys had finally chalked up a gold.

“We wanted to get that one, I guess mainly because we’ve had so much practice lip-synching the national anthem with the girls – we wanted to get a chance to do it ourselves,” Welsh said. “We wanted to finish off well; we knew we were a good chance.”

Earlier in the night, Australia took silver and bronze in an extremely tight final of the men’s 200m breaststroke, with Rickard and Jim Piper finishing a fraction behind Canadian Michael Brown.

It looked good for the Aussies at every turn, with Rickard leading after 50m and Piper after 100m and at the final turn, but four men – Piper, Brown, Pickard and Scotland’s Kristopher Gilchrist – were still in contention on the home stretch.

Brown lifted and Rickard came back in the final 50m, and it was between the two Aussies and the Canadian to slug it out for gold.

But Brown got the slight edge and the spoils, with Rickard touching out a tired Piper for silver. It was a high quality race, with all medallists coming in under the old Games record (Brown’s time was 2 minutes 12.23 seconds).

After leading for most of the journey, Piper admitted he was disappointed with his finish.

“It was very close, the closest race I’ve been in for a while. I put myself out there like I normally do, but it just wasn’t there today,” Piper said. “I felt the pressure in the last lap, but unfortunately got touched out.

In the men’s 50m freestyle final, Australian Brett Hawke won bronze behind South African superstar Roland Schoeman and Canada’s Brent Hayden.

Schoeman led from go to woe and claimed the gold in a Games record of 22.03 seconds, with Hayden sneaking through to claim silver and Hawke – whose poor start put him out of contention for gold early – finishing third in a time of 22.31 seconds.

The two other Australians in the final – Eamon Sullivan and Ashley Callus – finished fifth and eight respectively, while South Africa’s 100m freestyle winner Ryk Neethling finished seventh.

It was more than a little weird to see no Australians on dais after the men’s 1500m freestyle final as the hosts had dominated the event for as long as anyone can remember.

But in the absense of Australian Grant Hackett, it was a Welshman who claimed the distance crown, with David Davies taking out gold in 14 minutes and 57.63 seconds.

Davies led from the start and put in a commanding performance, not allowing Canadian silver medallist Andrew Hurd nor South African bronze medallist Hercules Prinsloo a sniff.

Australia’s Craig Stevens finished sixth, one place ahead of compatriot Travis Nederpelt.

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