Commonweath Games upset as Scotland's Duncan Scott beats Olympic champion in 100m freestyle

Haul | Scott adds a gold medal to his three bronze at Commonwealth Games
Getty Images
Greg Stutchbury8 April 2018

Scotland's Duncan Scott produced arguably the upset of the Commonwealth Games swimming programme so far on Sunday when he beat Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers with a late surge to win the men's 100m freestyle title.

The 20-year-old, who had already won three bronze medals, had been sixth at the turn for home but chased down a tiring Chad le Clos and just beat a surging Chalmers to the wall to touch in 48.02 seconds.

South Africa's le Clos and Chalmers, who had also won the 200m freestyle title and was a member of Australia's 4x100m freestyle gold medal-winning team, were tied for second in 48.15.

Scott became the first Scottish gold medallist at the Gold Coast Aquatics Centre and said he was particularly pleased to have executed his race tactics to perfection.

"I'm speechless to be honest, and that doesn't happen often. The main thing there was to execute my own race," he said. "In the 100 you've got some boys who were incredibly fast in the front in the first 50 metres, and worked it back on the second.

"I had to stick to what I'm good at, and that's bringing it home. So I stayed quite composed and let Chad go out, and then I tried to hunt him down. I'm very pleased with how I executed."

Chalmers, who is swimming in the 4x200m freestyle relay later on Sunday, said he had been battling a slight head cold but there was no fatigue and no excuses for his swim, where he never really looked in contention until the final few metres.

In Pictures | Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony | 04/04/2018

1/40

"I've got a bit of a head cold so that's the biggest thing I'm dealing with but you can't use that as an excuse either," Chalmers said. "I just wasn't fast enough."

Le Clos, who has two gold medals in the 50m and 200m butterfly already, said he was incredibly happy with his silver-medal finish, especially with the time.

"It was a PB (personal best) for me," the 25-year-old said. "I could see them swimming right next to me at the end which really pushed me. I may have over-reached at the end, but big props to Duncan."

Cameron McEvoy of Australia, who was the fastest qualifier, had turned marginally ahead of le Clos but was swum out of the medals in the final few strokes and finished fourth.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in