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On a night where the Dolphins enjoyed their most successful day in the pool yet at this meet when clinching seven gold medals, a team display former champion Johanna Griggs described as \u201cabsolutely mind-blowing\u201d, Williamson saved his best for last. <\/p>\n
Just a year after fearing he might not walk again, let alone win gold for Australia, the 28-year-old produced a magical final lap to reel in South African Michael Houlie and three-time Olympic gold medallist Adam Ramsey-Peatty.<\/p>\n
A rarity among the Dolphins in that he shuns the sunshine up north in preference to training in Melbourne, the 2024 World Champion suffered a career-threatening knee injury when \u201che put his foot down in the wrong spot\u201d a year ago in training.<\/p>\n
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\u2018Clearly not fair\u2019: Aussie sprint star rips Comm Games over \u2018extremely weird\u2019 100m drama<\/a><\/p>\n Wrap: Aussie aths history in \u2018race of a lifetime\u2019 as Comm Games rivals blown away<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI completely ruptured my patella tendon, tore it just from one side to the other of my kneecap and then also tore it completely off the (vastas medialis oblique),\u201d he told the ABC in April.<\/p>\n \u201cI was lying on my back clutching at my knee, but my kneecap was about halfway up my thigh. <\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it would have been a 48-hour period where I was concerned that swimming was completely out of the question. There was a genuine reality of, \u2018Am I actually going to be able to do this again, let alone walk again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Gold medalist Sam Williamson feared he would never swim for Australia a year ago after a devastating injury but has returned in brilliant fashion to complete the 50m-100m breaststroke double. (Photo by Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n Patched together by a broad group of specialists and trainers in Melbourne, the 28-year-old set his sights on starring for Australian again and has delivered with a glorious golden double after adding the 50m overnight to a triumph in the 100m.<\/p>\n To reel in Houthi in a race where the eight-time World Champion Peatty, who has held the world record since 2017, finished third, underlines the wonder of Williamson\u2019s return.<\/p>\n \u201cJust having the opportunity to put on the green and gold again was something that I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever have the opportunity to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo come home with two of these little medals in my back pocket, it just makes it even more special.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Williamson roars with joy after clinching a double at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. (Photo by Oli SCARFF \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n Short, meanwhile, is also demonstrating that disappointment can prove a driving force to greatness after winning the 800m freestyle by more than six seconds in a dominant display.<\/p>\n A distance specialist, he followed his triumph in the 400m with a superb swim to bring home an Aussie trifecta in the 800m, clocking 7:39:81 to beat home Benjamin Goedemans (7:46.49) and Matthew Galea (7:47.10) , but his meet is not yet complete.<\/p>\n A World Champion in 2023 in Fukuoka, the 22-year-old was considered a gold medal prospect in the Paris Olympics but injury and illness cooked his podium hopes.<\/p>\n But two years later he is demonstrating his world class credentials and will now target the 1500m in Glasgow in what would prove an astonishing feat if he can pull off the distance hattrick.<\/p>\n Meg Harris, meanwhile, sizzled to head home an all-Aussie blitz in the women\u2019s 100m in an upset win over defending champion Mollie O\u2019Callaghan and Shayna Jack, who announced her pending retirement leading into the Glasgow meet.<\/p>\n Harris, 24, who is a dual-Olympic 4 * 100m relay gold medallist, produced a brilliant swim of 52.9 seconds to clinch the crown.<\/p>\n O\u2019Callaghan has been hampered by back soreness but bounced back brilliantly to anchor a team featuring distance queen Lani Pallister, Hannah Casey and Inez Miller to a 15 metre win in the 4 * 200m relay, giving the star her third Commonwealth Games medal for the week.<\/p>\n Australia also has a new Madame Butterfly in Alex Perkins, with the Queenslander celebrating her birthday in tremendous fashion by clinching a fourth gold medal for the games with a brilliant swim of 56.83 seconds in the 100m butterfly.<\/p>\n Perkins completed the double after her triumph in the 50m butterfly and was also a member of the successful 4 * 100m freestyle relay and 4 * 100m mixed freestyle relay teams.<\/p>\n Queenslander Alex Perkins sensational Commonwealth Games continued when she clinched her fourth gold medal for the meet with a superb swim in the 100m women\u2019s breaststroke final. (Photo by Adam Pretty\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n Jenna Forrester, meanwhile, was delighted after clinching the 400m individual medley with her strength in the backstroke and freestyle legs a feature in clocking a time of 4:31.19, which is the world\u2019s third fastest time in 2026 and 11th best of all time.<\/p>\n Beau Matthews, meanwhile, relegated his idol and Australia\u2019s Opening Ceremony baton bearer Tim Hodge to third when winning the SB9 100m breaststroke with a daring swim.<\/p>\n Chalmers, who is seeking to defend his 100m freestyle crown won in dazzling fashion in Birmingham four years ago, posted the fastest time of 47.87 seconds in a semi-final, marginally quicker than the \u201cflying\u201d Flynn Southam, who clocked 48.08 seconds in the first semi to set the scene for what should be a fascinating final.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Australia has a whopping 26 gold medals in total at the games, 18 more than England in second place. <\/p>\n Australia has 59 medals in total compared to 32 from England and 21 from Canada. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Williamson had reason to shed tears on another golden Glasgow morning for Australia in the pool at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,85],"class_list":["post-827795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}