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 The Australians, who won just one gold medal at the 2012
Olympics, earned 57 medals at the Tollcross Swimming Centre, 19 of
them gold.
The Olympic champion women's 4x100 freestyle relay team also broke
the world record in the final, eclipsing one of the marks set during
the 'supersuit' frenzy at the 2009 world championships in Rome.
The team had downplayed any pre-Games hype, pointing out that while
Britain was divided into its component parts, they still had a
strong swimming program and would be buoyed by enthusiastic local
crowds.
Emma Mckeon topped the individual tally for Australia with four
golds and two bronze medals, while world 100 freestyle champion Cate
Campbell won three golds and a silver. She also anchored the 4x100
freestyle relay team to their world record.
Double world 100 freestyle champion James Magnussen, who finished
second in London in the blue riband event behind American Nathan
Adrian, also banished his demons from British pools by clinching two
golds.
He held off young team mate Cameron McEvoy, who had beaten him at
the nationals, in 48.11 seconds, the fourth-fastest time of the
year.
The team's success was a far cry from the scandal that enveloped
them after London with an inquiry unveiling revelations of sleeping
pill abuse, drunkenness and mismanagement.
Team management instigated a 'dry' Commonwealth Games policy and
they have little time to celebrate their success anyway.
The swimmers will leave Glasgow almost immediately to head straight
into camp on Australia's Gold Coast for the Aug. 21-24 Pan Pacs,
where they face Commonwealth challengers New Zealand and Canada, as
well as Japan and the powerful Americans.
BOYLE TRIUMPHANT
New Zealand's team will not leave from Glasgow as early as
Australia, though there was no chance for them to celebrate with 400
freestyle gold medalist Lauren Boyle telling media they had a
training session scheduled for early on Wednesday.
"I'm coming in for training at 6:15 tomorrow morning," Boyle told
New Zealand media in Glasgow shortly after her medal ceremony. "It's
not a joke - I was kind of shocked myself.
"I'll see my family after this and hang out for a few hours but I've
got to get ready for the next competition. That's the life of an
athlete."
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Boyle's medal winning performance, she also claimed silver in the 800
freestyle, could set up an interesting showdown with American teenager
Katie Ledecky on the Gold Coast.
Ledecky, the London Olympics 800 champion, has already broken her own
world records in the 800 and 1,500 at a meeting in Texas in June, and
could be targeting Federica Pellegrini's 400 record of 3:59.15 at next
week's U.S. nationals in California.
Ledecky holds the fastest time for the 400 this year with 4:03.09. Boyle
set a Commonwealth Games record of 4:04.47 on Tuesday in Glasgow, the
fourth fastest this year, and less than 24 hours after the 800 final.
"I didn't actually feel too bad," Boyle said of her ability to back up.
"It was a pretty hard double - eight and a half minutes of full-bore
racing last night and then heats this morning and finals tonight. I
haven't done that for a few years."
Boyle's challenge on the Gold Coast will undoubtedly be bigger against
the 17-year-old Ledecky, who clocked eight minutes, 11.00 seconds in the
800 last month, two days after she took more than two seconds off her
1,500 record.
The U.S. championships will also double as the selection for the Pan
Pacs and the squad for the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Russia.
(Writing by Greg Stutchbury in Wellington; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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