Commonwealth Games: Peaty fires ominous warning

The 23-year-old world, European and Olympic champion broke his own Games record to clock a time of 58.59 secondss as he advanced quickest to the final.

England team-mate James Wilby from York was his nearest challenger, fresh from his 200m victory on Thursday.

He will now race for gold on Saturday and Peaty said: “I’m pretty confident we can get something fast (tomorrow).

“Everyone’s beatable, but I’ve defended my titles for four years and that’s what I’ve come here to do.”

Sarah Vasey, Peaty’s training partner in Loughborough, won the women’s 50m breaststroke, while Scotland’s Mark Szaranek took silver in the men’s 400m individual medley and Duncan Scott bronze in the men’s 200m freestyle.

Australia won the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay ahead of England in silver and Scotland in bronze.

Alice Tai won the women’s S9 100m backstroke and Lewis White took silver in the corresponding men’s event.

Katie Archibald stormed to gold in the 3000m individual pursuit, clocking three minutes 26.088 seconds to beat Australia’s Rebecca Wiasak. Wales’ Lewis Oliva took silver in the men’s keirin as Australian Matthew Glaetzer successfully defended the title he won in Glasgow.

An inexperienced England women’s artistic gymnastics team pushed Canada all the way before having to settle for silver in Coomera. Canada took gold by 1.25 points ahead of Kelly Sim, Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Lucy Stanhope and Taeja James. Fenton and James qualified for the individual uneven bars and floor finals respectively.

“We have had a lot of injuries but they have really pulled us together as a team. I’m just so proud of all the girls,” said Fenton.

Wales’ table tennis prodigy Anna Hursey could not prevent defeat against Australia in the quarter finals of the team competition.

Charlotte Carey, Chloe Thomas and 11-year-old Hursey – who competed in the doubles match – had earlier beaten Sri Lanka but lost 3-1 to the hosts.

Gareth Evans struck Wales’ first gold of the Games though in the weightlifting.

He saw off his rivals in 
the 69kgs category by lifting 299kg.

Elsewhere, England’s men’s hockey team were clinical as they hammered Malaysia 7-0 in their opening game. Sam Ward and Mark Gleghorne scored twice while David Goodfield, Harry Martin and Phil Roper completed a dominant win.

The women then beat Wales 5-1 thanks to goals from Giselle Ansley, Susannah Townsend, Hannah Martin, Sophie Bray and Grace Balsdon while Eloise Laity netted for Wales.

Team England beat Mozambique in the first beach volleyball contest.