Lewis Clareburt, with his second Commonwealth Games gold medal on consecutive evenings, headlined a brilliant swimming session for New Zealand.
Besides Clareburt, whose gold came in the men’s 200m butterfly, Joshua Willmer struck gold in the men’s SB8 100m breaststroke and Tupou Neiufi claimed silver in the women’s S8 100m backstroke.
Clareburt, fresh from his triumph in the 400m individual medley, was outstanding in the butterfly. He was fastest qualifier and looked confident throughout the final.
The Wellingtonian unleashed a withering sprint in the final stages to move clear of defending champion Chad le Clos of South Africa and won in 1min 55.60s. Le Close finished in 1min 55.89s.
Afterwards Clareburt , who is about the most relaxed champion you could find, said he was surprised how the day had turned out.
“I didn’t think that would happen,” he said. “I knew in the qualifying swim that I had a little bit left over the last 50 metres and I used that tonight.”
Willmer covered the 100m breaststroke in 1min 14.12s and just edged out Australian Timothy Hodge by 0.07s. Another New Zealander, Jesse Reynolds finished fourth in 1min 20.93s.
“I couldn’t see Timothy over the last five metres,” he said. “I pumped my arms and legs and just hoped I got there first. I’m so excited. I’m really stoked.”
Neiufi’s time for the 100m backstroke was 1min 17.91s. She was some distance behind the winner England’s Alice Tai, but thoroughly deserved her silver medal after a well-executed race.
In other good news, Andrew Jeffcoat qualified second fastest for the men’s 50m backstroke final. Jeffcoat won his semi in 24.82s, a bare hundredth of a second slower than South African Pieter Coetze.
Helena Gasson also progressed to a final when she qualified sixth fastest for the women’s 50m butterfly with a time of 26.36s.
In the men’s 100m freestyle, Cameron Gray touched in 49.89s, but was only 12th fastest and missed a spot in the final.
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