Adam Ramsay-Peaty’s Commonwealth Games ended with a silver medal as England were beaten by Australia’s imperious swimmers in the final swimming event of Glasgow 2026. Australia overhauled South Africa in the closing stages to win the men’s 4x100m medley relay, with England then holding off Pieter Coetze’s South Africans for second in the pool.
Scotland rounded off another memorable night with a silver medal in the women’s 4x100m medley relay as Australia stormed to gold in a Commonwealth Games record time.
Roared on by a vocal crowd, the quartet of Katie Shanahan, Angharad Evans, Keanna MacInnes and Evelyn Davis battled for the lead throughout before Davis produced a composed anchor leg to hold off South Africa and Canada to secure second place. Australia, who had qualified more than four seconds faster than the field, lived up to their billing as favourites as Iona Anderson, Sienna Toohey, Alex Perkins and Meg Harris powered to gold, while South Africa snatched bronze ahead of Canada in the closing stages.
Evans delighted the home support by winning a second breaststroke gold of the Games and South Africa’s Coetze continued his dominance in the pool with a third title and a Games record.
Evans followed up her 100m breaststroke triumph by winning the women’s 200m breaststroke, holding off a late charge from South Africa’s Kaylene Corbett to seal victory by 0.67sec. Northern Ireland’s Ellie McCartney completed the podium with bronze.
The evening had begun with another statement performance from Coetze, who retained his men’s 100m backstroke crown in emphatic fashion. He clocked a Commonwealth Games record of 51.77 – just 0.17 outside the world record – to collect his third gold medal in Glasgow after winning the 50m and 200m backstroke titles.
England’s Oliver Morgan claimed silver, finishing 0.89 behind Coetze for the second successive race after also trailing the South African by the same margin in the semi-finals. Coetze’s compatriot Ruard van Renen secured bronze.
Australia celebrated a breakthrough victory in the men’s 200m freestyle as Kai Taylor produced the swim of his life to claim the first individual senior international gold medal of his career. The 22-year-old led from the halfway point and held off a star-studded field to win. The three-time Olympic champion James Guy of England and Wales’s Matt Richards tied for silver.
Australia dominated the sprint events, with clean sweeps in the women’s 50m freestyle and men’s 50m butterfly. Harris led home teammates Perkins and Shayna Jack in the women’s race, with Jack taking bronze in the final race of her career. The Welsh teenager Theodora Taylor was fourth.
Australian success continued in the men’s butterfly, where Kyle Chalmers and Ben Armbruster shared gold after both broke the Games record with identical times of 22.73sec. Cameron McEvoy took bronze.
Scotland’s Toni Shaw prevented a third consecutive Australian podium sweep by snatching bronze in the women’s S9 100m freestyle, finishing just 0.02 ahead of Victoria Belando Nicholson as Lakeisha Patterson and Emily Beecroft completed an Australian one-two.
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