Medley magic as Team England make it eight Commonwealth golds

Team England’s Men’s 4x100m Mixed Medley relay quartet rounded out their Commonwealth Games in style as they took gold in the penultimate event at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre.

The team of Brodie Williams, James Wilby, James Guy and Tom Dean took the title by just 0.08 after a nail-biting duel with Australia.

Williams got England off to a fine start, on the back of his 200m Backstroke gold yesterday, to put his team into the lead after the opening leg.

Australia were only 0.05 back at that stage however as Wilby put in a storming Breaststroke leg to put England into a three quarters of a second lead.

James Guy held off Matthew Temple in the Butterfly leg as the leading two teams begun to pull clear of the rest of the pack.

That left Tom Dean to fend off the Australian fightback in the final 100m’s to take the gold medal that’s eluded him throughout the week.

Dean fought hard and despite the best efforts of Australia’s Kyle Chalmers he held on to ‘bring it home’ for England by the narrowest of margins.

It was Dean’s first gold of this year’s Games, despite taking six silver medals and the British Performance Centre swimmer was delighted to add a gold to his collection.

He said: “Six silvers, one gold. That is such a sweet way to finish what has been an incredible week.

“It’s in our DNA, it’s our job so it does sting slightly when you are so close to getting that gold but I’m so glad it came together tonight.

“Getting the big number seven. This week has been so special and it’s the first time we’ve done this combination with the relay. It just came together so well, we executed perfect race plans.

“It’s incredible to deliver a result like that in front of 5,000 England fans.”

‘What an experience’

Dean battled with Australia’s Kyle Chalmers right until the last breath but was delighted to get to the wall ahead of the Australian.

“I knew Kyle (Chalmers) was going to be so strong on that back 50.

“He’s notoriously incredible on his back end so I knew if I executed a good finish it could really make a world of difference, so it’s just judging that wall coming in and I had a good night tonight.

“The boys always joke, because I’ve got slightly long arms, that I’m able to get on that wall first and it’s helped me a few times in the past and it did tonight.”

Wilby took his second gold of this year’s games and said that this was an incredible way to end his successful Commonwealth Games.

“It was always going to be pretty tight.

“On paper throughout this week we’ve been close to one another, England and Australia.

“We’re all fatigued but there is nothing more special to finish the week with winning a big one for the team, we really banded together and put in so much effort.

“We should be incredibly proud of that – I certainly am.”

Guy added by saying to have an experience like this in front of a home crowd was something special.

“It’s great. In 2014 [when England won] and back in 2018 [when Australia won], to beat obviously the Australians.

“To swim in front of a home crowd is fantastic.

“We knew it would be quite a tight race but I just had to make sure it was the fastest back 25 we had and that last part of the race and it worked.

“Four boys, new team for the relay. What an experience that was to win.”