Adlington out in front

Rebecca Adlington was relieved as she added the Commonwealth 800 metres freestyle title to her Olympic crown at the Dr SP Mukherjee Aquatics Complex in Delhi.

The 21-year-old's gold concluded a session in which home nations swimmers also claimed four silvers and one bronze medal.

Adlington said: "It's been a long season, so it's nice to finish off with a gold medal."

Adlington was second-fastest into the final behind Wendy Trott but she was seven metres ahead at halfway before the South African started to chase down the double Olympic champion.

However, Adlington was never seriously threatened, touching in eight minutes 24.69 seconds ahead of Trott and Australia's Melissa Gorman. It was Adlington's third medal of the Games after her bronze double in the 200m freestyle and 4x200m relay.

Adlington said: "Coming here if I wanted to get a gold medal it was going to be in that event to be honest. I just decided to go for it and went for it from the start and at 400 saw I was a bit ahead and thought 'I might as well stick at this pace, just keep it nice and smooth'.

"It wasn't about the time at all there, this week has not been about times for anyone, it's been about the racing."

Simon Burnett produced a thoroughly controlled swim to claim the 100m freestyle silver in 48.54, his fastest ever in textiles, behind former world champion Brent Hayden who became only the third man to dip under 48 seconds in a textile suit, lowering his own Games record to 47.98.

Burnett said: "Brent has been on fire this week and in the past few weeks. I knew he was going to be almost impossible to beat for gold. I can't believe I got second, I'm thrilled."

Ellen Gandy, of England, and Wales' Jemma Lowe were second and third respectively in the 100m butterfly, Joe Roebuck got silver in the 400m individual medley while Stephanie Millward was second in the S9 100m freestyle.