Relay silver for Team England

Team England had to settle for a silver medal in the final race of the 2018 Commonwealth Games after a thrilling men’s 4x100m Medley relay.

The team of Luke Greenbank, Adam Peaty, James Guy and Ben Proud were beaten to the gold medal by Australia by 0.09 seconds.

Australia set a new Games record of 3:31.04 as Kyle Chalmers touched home just ahead of 50m Freestyle champion Proud.

The second place ensured a total 24 swimming medals for Team England at the Gold Coast Games – nine golds, ten silvers and five bronze.

England were fourth after Greenbank’s 54.61 backstroke leg but had taken the lead by the time Peaty had completed his 100m breaststroke in a time of 57.64

Guy’s impressive butterfly in 50.95 meant Proud dived into the pool for the freestyle just ahead of Chalmers. But despite swimming a 47.93 leg, the Australians just touched home first.

Proud said: “The team did an amazing job to put me in a good position. I’m just sorry I couldn’t hold on a little longer to take the win.

“I was giving it my all and I don’t think I could have given any more. To go 47 is great for me, and as a GB Team it will be exciting to see this team develop for Tokyo.

“To do a double race, it gave me a lot of confidence. I saw the English flag get raised three times when I was standing on the podium which was a really special moment for me.”

End on a high

Guy added: “That’s four silvers and one bronze for me so it’s nice to end on a high. That was a good split for me, so I’m happy with that. There’s always room to improve but nice to end on a medal.”

And Peaty said: “April is the middle of our season, so we can all improve on our times and we can all go faster than that.

“The Australians had a great race. I was out there with the team having fun, which was great. It’s given me a lot of confidence.

“This is a building block for the rest of the season. Even though this was a silver medal, it feels like this will add more value to the golds in the future.”

England’s women finished fourth in their 4x100m Medley relay in a time of 4:01.67.

Lizze Simmonds (1:00.62), Sarah Vasey (1:08.01), Siobhan-Marie O’Connor (58.57) and Anna Hopkin (54.47) were 0.92 seconds behind Wales, who took the bronze in 4:00.75.

Australia set a new Games record time of 3:54.36 as they beat Canada (3:55.10) to the gold medal.

Meanwhile, Jacob Leach set a new lifetime best of 1:06.59 in the men’s S9 100m Backstroke final.

He was sixth with Lewis White taking seventh place in a time of 1:07.25.