Article by Simon Smale and Kelsie Iorio courtesy of the ABC.
Emma McKeon has joined Australian swimming royalty by winning her 10th career Commonwealth Games gold on day two in Birmingham.
McKeon, alongside Madi Wilson, Shayna Jack and Mollie O’Callaghan, obliterated the field to win the 4x100m freestyle relay title by almost six seconds.
The 28-year-old joins swimming legends Suzie O’Neill, Ian Thorpe and Liesel Jones in winning 10 gold medals at the Games.
Earlier, McKeon earned her first Commonwealth Games silver in the 100m butterfly, just running out of time to close down a tiring Maggie Mac Neil, who claimed gold for Canada.
It means McKeon has a total of 15 Commonwealth Games medals, level with luminaries O’Neil and Emily Seebohm as the most of any Australian swimmer.
The women’s relay achievements were matched by the men’s team of Flynn Southam, Zac Incerti, William Xu Yang and Kyle Chalmers, who also claimed gold in a Games record time.
Chelsea Hodges (50m breaststroke), Elijah Winnington (200m freestyle) and Jacob Templeton (S13 50m freestyle) all claimed bronze in their respective races at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre before normal service resumed when Katja Dedekind won the S13 50m freestyle.
Dedekind, who is visually impaired, only found out she broke a world record on live television during a post-race interview, as did Kirralee Hayes who won bronze in the same race.
Brendon Smith picked up a silver medal in the 400m individual medley behind New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt, before Bradley Woodward added to the bronze tally in a fiercely competitive 100m backstroke.
