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It’s shaping as a golden night at the pool for Australia to start the 2018 Commonwealth Games swimming campaign, with seven medals up for grabs. Join The Roar for live coverage and updates from 7:30pm (AEST).
The headline events of the first night are shaping as the women’s 4×100-metre relay, men’s 400-metre freestyle final and women’s 200-metre freestyle final.
The relay will see Bronte and Cate Campbell team with Emma McKeon and Brianna Throssell in what should realistically be the fastest team in the world, let alone the Commonwealth.
McKeon and the Campbell sisters were part of the team who set a world record of 3.30.65 at the Rio Olympics and even though Throssell has joined the team, that gives up nothing.
The Aussies missed out on gold by just .3 of a second at the 2017 World Championships, but on that occasion were swimming without Throssell and Cate Campbell. Their closest Commonwealth counterpart were Canada, whose team of Sandrine Mainville, Chantal Van Landeghem, Kayla Sanchez and Penny Oleksiak were a distant two seconds behind.
In the men’s 400, Mack Horton enters as favourite. He missed out on gold at the worlds to Sun Yang by just under two seconds, but won’t have to compete with the Chinese swimmer on the Gold Coast.
He is in good form after winning the recent national championships, but is likely to face stiff opposition from teammates David McKeon and Jack McLoughlin, while England’s James Guy, who holds a season-best time just a second over that of Horton’s.
It’s another pair of Aussies who seem to hold the card in the women’s 200-metre freestyle, with Emma McKeon a heavy favourite ahead of young teammate Ariarne Titmus.
Elanor Faulkner is the top non-Aussie, with the Englishwoman holding a season best of 1.56.76, which is less than a second behind McKeon. The other to keep an eye on will be Canadian Taylor Ruck.
The women’s 400-metre IM final will also be played out, with Scot Hannah Miley, England’s Aimee Willmott and Canada’s Mary-Sophie Harvey going in as favourites.
Scot Ross Murdoch is a clear favourite in the men’s 200-metre breastroke, but will come under fire from Aussie Matt Harvey, who has a best time for the season just six-tenths of a second behind that of Murdoch.
The first para-sport medals will also be awarded in the pool with the men’s S14 200-metre freestyle and women’s S7 50-metre butterfly final being contested.
There are also a slew of semi-finals at spring distance on across the course of the evening.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the first night at the pool from 7:30pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.