In the most absorbing day of the Glasgow Comm Games, Australian James Magnussen won the 100 free, compatriot Michael Shelley stunned the athletics world with gold in the marathon, while the Queen of the velodrome Anna Meares, and the king of rugby sevens New Zealand, were both dethroned.
For Magnussen, it was ridding himself of the London 2012 and national championship gremlins.
His arch rival and great mate Cameron McEvoy was favoured to win the blue riband event because he has no gremlins, just a 100 per cent competitive instinct every time he dives into the pool.
But Magnussen was hungrier.
McEvoy led at the turn with Magnussen dragging the chain, but once he surfaced from his tumble turn it was game on.
But it took him until 70 metres until Magnussen’s bigger frame of 197cms and 90kgs took command over McEvoy’s 185cms and 85kgs, and it was all over bar the shouting.
Magnussen (48.11) took the gold, McEvoy (48.34), the silver, and a salute to Tommaso D’Orsogna (49.04) as well to hang in there to claim bronze for an Australian 1-2-3.
Stand by for more Magnussen victories to go with his 2013 world champion tag.
But the most stunning victory was Shelley’s from a big group of Kenyans, Ugandans, and Tanzanians who can run for days and days, let alone a marathon.
But by the time the tape was in sight, there was no sign of any of the Africans, just a lone Australian from the Gold Coast who had burned them all off.
Shelley became the fourth Australian to win a Commonwealth marathon after Dave Power (1958), Rob de Castella (1982 and 1986), and Steve Moneghetti (1994) who as Chef de Mission cheered Shelley home in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 15 seconds.
On the other side of the coin, the seemingly invincible Anna Meares had to be content with silver as her teammate, Comm Games room-mate, and good mate Stephanie Morton emphatically took out the best of three sprint final 2-0.
Morton was literally stunned, she had beaten her idol.
But to prove it, if any proof was needed, Meares joined her conqueror on top of the podium in a big hug as they sang the national anthem together.
There was no such joy when South Africa beat New Zealand 17-12 in the final of the rugby sevens, the Kiwis very first defeat of any kind in 16 years of Commonwealth Games matches.
In one of sports more amazing stats, New Zealand has won every game in group and finals stages since they first played in the Comm Games sevens in 1998.
Australia, beaten 19-7 by the Kiwis in the semis, won bronze with a 24-0 win over Samoa.
So the medal tally shows Australian sport is back in business, comfortably leading the 70 other competing counties with 73 medals – 26 gold, 21 silver, and 26 bronze.
England’s second with 23-17-17 for 57 medals, and Scotland 11-8-11 for 30.
But the bulk of those Australian medals have come from the pool – 15-13-10 for 38 – and for that John Bertrand must take a bow.
The America’s Cup hero of 1983 took over as Swim Australia president after the disastrous performances at the London 2012 Olympics. It was so bad Bertrand almost had to reinvent the wheel.
That he’s been able to instil all the renowned Bertrand pride, passion, and dedication back into the sport, has reaped rich rewards.
We won’t know how rich until the Australians take on the USA. But for the moment they can only beat what opposition is available, and they’ve done that comprehensively well.
Bondy
Guest
Chris Interesting points you make and a fair and rational assessment .
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
You realise that Magnussen swam 47.53 in the Olympics final to lose out by 0.01 sec and the time he swam here was beaten by the top 7 competitors in the Olympics final with the top 6 all going sub-48. I always thought the criticism of Magnussen's results at London were a bit harsh (criticism of his and others behaviour maybe totally warranted, but I'm talking specifically of the performance here). Now I realise he was racing, and he has swum faster in the relays here. I believe he split 47.15 or something in the Medley Relay final, which is pretty decent even with the flying start which they suggest aids you to the value of about 0.6 sec, and he did that trying to chase someone down, but after that allowance is still slower than his swim in the individual 100m at London, and his lead-off leg in London 4x100m relay was 48.03, leading a total time that was 2 sec quicker than they managed to win the Gold in the 4x100m Freestyle relay here. So I don't know that I'd be jumping up and down about these guys being "back" after these performances. I believe Magnussen is world class and may well win the 100m Freestyle Gold in Rio, but in many ways his swims at London were actually better than here, he just got beaten on the day by swimmers who managed to step it up slightly better than him. In Glasgow, he hasn't had the competition to push him that hard.
Colin N
Guest
You do realise that para sports were involved in both 2010 and 2006?
Colin N
Guest
In Delhi Australia won 22 golds in the swimming with England the next closest with eight, in 2006 it was 19 with England getting eight and so far this year it's 17 golds for Australia with England the next closest with eight, so the pattern is following previous Games.
Colin N
Guest
You do realise that England and Australia have won the same amount of gold medals from para sports so far with four each? So no, it's not highly skewed.
Da Spoon
Guest
Uk has always had the number of people but performed badly in the past. Lottery funding brought the success @ £4.5 million per medal in London. Countries wanting to succeed need to spend copious amounts of dosh to get success. It's not a level playing field any more, particularly for less developed nations.
Bondy
Guest
Paul Its an unfair medal tally situation how many disabled athletes would receive access to wheelchairs for instance in Sri Lanka or India for that matter, the wealthier nations prevail again Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain ..
James
Guest
youre right. the home nations medal tally is highly skewed by medals won at the parra sports. England wouldnt be near Australia if it werent for this
jameswm
Roar Guru
And a sport like athletics which is truly competitive and world wide cops it, because we're not good enough. Funny that. How many top Lenyan swimmers, or Jamaican swimmers are there? I saw one good one from each country. How many swimming races have Botswana, Grenada or Trinidad and Tobago competitors as medal favourites? Contrast that to athletics.
James
Guest
there is something very wrong with swimming. Either Australia have improved or other countires arent putting as much enough in terms of developing swimming in thier own countires. Considering Australia poor medal haul at the last Olympics, it could be the latter. I use to remember the swimming medals was more evenly spread throughout 7-8 countires. Now it only won between 3 maybe 4 nations which makes for poor viewing.
Peeeko
Guest
Probably need to import another 30 million or so people to do that? Per capita australia are very high
Bondy
Guest
Thank christ the swimmings over its Australians vs Australians . Swimming has been shoved down our throats at every possible opportunity are there any other sports there ?. Most swimming events an Australian wins gold then another Australian wins either silver or bronze its hardly a competitive sport against other nations, how many nations from the continents of Asia, Africa or the West Indies have a pedigree in Swimming .
mushi
Guest
I put on a fat suit to get the full experience
Jack
Guest
Is this what it's like to feel like an American for two weeks every four years?
Da Spoon
Guest
You mean like it was at the last Olympics? See you in Rio Aussies. Can you improve on 10th last time?
Paul
Guest
I thought these commonwealth games were 'decent' until I realize that they are combining the paralympic/parra sports medals in the official medial table.I just gave up watching and thought these games are a complete joke. It is now officially the weakest sporting multilevel out there if there was anything weaker out there. This will just heavily skew the medal tally towards countires who have the numbers, $$ and logistical advantages of sending more para athletes. . Can someone explain whose stupid idea this was? How are we suppose to look at how a team performs whether able or parra sports when they are combined.
gibbo
Guest
I wouldn't be making any generalisations about interest in the Commonwealth Games by the paucity of comments here . I'd say that plenty of people are interested in Comm Games sports but they just aren't the same people who are the regular commentators on this website ( where an obsession with one of the various football codes is the most common characteristic )
MichaelJ
Guest
Well, Australia may not win many races on the track but they will get first place for the most lewd outfits.
Bill
Guest
Well given our competition, its an Aus only comp.
Bill
Guest
Well said. Waste of time event.