{"id":559668,"date":"2026-07-26T01:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/559668\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:23:10","slug":"sam-williamson-topples-british-breaststroke-great-as-australia-dominate-in-glasgow-pool-commonwealth-games-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/559668\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Williamson topples British breaststroke great as Australia dominate in Glasgow pool | Commonwealth Games 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia are turning the Tollcross Swimming Centre into their own Commonwealth Games<\/a> fortress after Sam Williamson, Sam Short and Mollie O\u2019Callaghan led a parade of five gold medals on day two in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan threw aside \u201cthe unlucky stick\u201d to win the 200m freestyle, Alex Perkins earned her first major individual crown in the 50m butterfly and Kyle Chalmers won a ninth gold in the mixed freestyle relay to home in on Games history.<\/p>\n

Short led an all Australian podium of 1-2-3 in the 400m freestyle while Williamson downed British great Adam Ramsay-Peaty in a thrilling 100m breaststroke final. The Dolphins have secured 11 gold medals in total after their opening day haul of six golds.<\/p>\n

A year ago, Williamson feared for his career after rupturing his patella tendon in training. The 28-year-old Victorian was a picture of emotion after Saturday\u2019s race as he thanked his family, having beating world record holder Ramsay-Peaty who was consigned to <\/a>turn .<\/p>\n

\u201cMentally it was the toughest challenge I\u2019ve ever had to face,\u201d said Williamson, who forged through with a powerful second length to win in 59.17 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day I wanted to throw in the towel but I knew how far I\u2019d come to get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Short, who\u2019s shooting for five gold medals in Glasgow, dominated the field by more than four seconds in 3 minutes 41.25 seconds before offering a muscle man celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t come around too often and you\u2019ve got to make the most of it,\u201d said the Queenslander of his flex.<\/p>\n

Sam Short dominated the 400m freestyle. Photograph: Mickael Chavet\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Behind the 22-year-old Queenslander there was a fierce battle as Elijah Winnington (3:45.56) pipped teammate Ben Goedemans by one hundredth of a second.<\/p>\n

It was a formidable effort from Winnington, who revealed afterwards he\u2019d spent most of the previous night over a toilet bowl after a bout of food poisoning.<\/p>\n

Short said the sweep echoed the 400m free 1-2-3 in Birmingham four years ago when Winnington led home Short, with Mack Horton nabbing the bronze.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just goes to show the rich history of Australian 400m swimming and it\u2019s super special,\u201d said Winnington.<\/p>\n

Mollie O’Callaghan on the podium with Lani Pallister after their gold and silver in the 200m freestyle. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan, who\u2019d anchored the women\u2019s 4x100m freestyle-winning quartet the night before, picked up her second gold, showing no vestiges of the stress fractures and bone bruising in her back that had cast a cloud over her participation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDealing with the injury currently is not the best thing ever, but as an athlete you\u2019ve got to find ways to adapt,\u201d said the Queenslander, who stopped the clock at 1:54.66 to Lani Pallister\u2019s 1:55.01, having always been in control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the best part about sport \u2013 you get hit with an unlucky stick and then you\u2019ve got to pick yourself back up.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing modified training and adapting to that and seeing how I go off that, it\u2019s just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an emotional evening for Perkins, two days before her 26th birthday, as she took the butterfly dash in 25.37 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think I really believed that I\u2019d ever be at this level so I\u2019m just taking it all in,\u201d beamed the Queenslander, who\u2019d previously won four major individual medals but never made the top of the podium.<\/p>\n

The Australian freestylers made it five golds as Flynn Southam, Chalmers, Shayna Jack and Meg Harris set a new Games record in the mixed relay, clocking 3:19.36 in a procession.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s left Chalmers on nine gold career Commonwealth Games medals, and if he can deliver another in the 100m freestyle, he\u2019ll surpass Ian Thorpe as the most successful Australian men\u2019s swimmer in the history of the Games.<\/p>\n

Paralympic silver medallist Jack Ireland savoured another second-place finish in the 200m freestyle S14 final for Australia\u2019s sixth medal in the para events in the pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia are turning the Tollcross Swimming Centre into their own Commonwealth Games fortress after Sam Williamson, Sam Short…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-559668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}