Two teenaged Britons heading for the European Aquatics Championships in Paris next month laid down huge markers on day five of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games as Filip Nowacki earned a first ever swimming gold for Jersey and Amalie Smith added bronze to her previous day’s silver.
Nowacki, 18, who won double gold last year in the European and world juniors, clocked 2:07.87 to achieve his landmark men’s 200m breaststroke win at the Tollcross International Pool.
British-born Canadian Oliver Dawson clocked a national record of 2:08.39 for silver, with bronze going to Australia’s Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook in 2:08.91.
“That’s lovely history,” said Nowacki, who had earlier won Jersey’s first Commonwealth swimming medal by finishing second in the 100m breaststroke.
“It’s very special to me, and that’s going to be special to me for the rest of my career, and definitely for the rest of my life.”
Smith, 16, who successfully defended her European junior 400m individual medley title in Munich earlier this month, had taken more than a second off her personal best to earn 400m IM silver in 4:33.70 the previous night, and she continued in medal-winning form.
Her time of 2:09.61 secured third place in a hugely competitive women’s 200m IM as Australia’s Jenna Forrester completed a medley double in 2:09.24 and South Africa’s Aimee Canny took silver in 2:09.37.
England secured two more medals in the women’s swimming programme as Lauren Cox finished third in the 50m backstroke in 27.56 and Imogen Clark shared bronze with Canada’s Sophie Angus in the 50m breaststroke after both had finished in 30.86.
Matt Richards earned silver for Wales in the men’s 100m freestyle in 47.64, with gold going to Australia’s Flynn Southam in 47.13 and his team-mate Kyle Chalmers, who has won a gold and two silvers over the course of the last three Olympics, taking bronze in 47.74.
Scotland’s individual gold medallists Duncan Scott and Angharad Evans added a bronze medal to their tally as they helped the mixed 4x100m freestyle team finish third, with Scott producing a storming final leg to clock 3:43.70 in a final won by Australia in a Games record of 3:40.36.
In para-swimming events home athlete Stephen Clegg – whose brother James had won 100m freestyle S13 silver on the opening night – took gold in the 50m freestyle S13 in 24.73 from South Africa’s Nathan Hendricks, who recorded 24.84.
Swimming at the Commonwealth Games runs from July 24 to 29; swimming at the European Aquatics Championships Paris 2026 will run from August 10 to 16.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
