Commonwealth Games, Day Six Finals: Australia Caps Meet with Double Medley Relay Wins; Pieter Coetze Shines Again
It’s only fitting that Australia wrapped up a dominant showing at the Commonwealth Games with victories in the women’s and men’s 400 medley relays on Wednesday night. The six-day competition at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre was ruled by the Dolphins, who won 30 of the 42 events and overwhelmed their foes on the medals table.
The Aussie women struck first, as the foursome of Iona Anderson, Sienna Toohey, Alex Perkins and Meg Harris delivered a Games-record time of 3:54.25. Trailing Canada and Scotland at the halfway point, a 56.30 split from Perkins on the butterfly leg changed the dynamic for Australia, which took the lead and had Harris finish off the victory with a freestyle leg of 52.37. Anderson was solid on the backstroke, going 58.83, and Toohey checked in with a breaststroke split of 1:06.75.
The silver medal went to Scotland, which benefited from Angharad Evans‘ 1:04.83 contribution on the breaststroke leg. The squad put together a time of 3:57.02, which topped the bronze-medal effort of South Africa (3:58.58).
In the men’s medley relay, Australia had to battle back from an early deficit, but ended up cruising to victory in a Games record of 3:28.71. The team of Henry Allan, Sam Williamson, Matt Temple and Flynn Southam topped England (3:30.68) by nearly two seconds, with South Africa grabbing the bronze medal in 3:31.13.
Once again, South Africa’s Pieter Coetze was sensational in the 100 backstroke, as he led off in the No. 2 performance of all-time, an effort of 51.71. That time bettered his 51.77 from the final of the 100 backstroke earlier in the evening, which for a short period was the second-quickest time in history. Adding the mixed medley relay to the equation, and Coetze went sub-52 in the 100 back on three occasions during the Games.
After Allan went 53.58 for his backstroke leg, Williamson reduced the Aussies’ deficit by a considerable margin with a 58.40 breaststroke split. That leg set the table for Temple, who turned in a 50.18 butterfly split. On the end, Southam was tremendous, going 46.55 to back up a week that saw him win the 100 freestyle crown and lead Australia to the 400 freestyle relay title.