Commonwealth Games: Swimmers Sam Williamson and Mollie O’Callaghan show resilience to win gold medals on Day 2

Resilience was the theme of Australia’s swimmers securing another five gold medals on the second day of the Commonwealth Games.

The highlight of the night session at Glasgow’s Tollcross International Swimming Centre was undoubtedly Sam Williamson completing a remarkable comeback from a horrific injury by claiming an emotional victory in the men’s 100m breaststroke final.

Just over a year ago, a mishap attempting a box jump while training in the gym left the Victorian with a severely ruptured patella tendon. He was left needing to relearn how to walk, much less swim.

But in a storyline straight out of a sports movie, he overcame one of the stroke’s great exponents in England’s Adam Ramsay-Peaty to storm home and win with a time of 59.17sec.

An elated Williamson told Channel Seven the success had made all of his hardships worth it.

“After everything that’s happened, all the ups and downs — and I swear to God, there’s been a lot of downs in the last 12 months — just getting up on the blocks tonight is something I’m immensely proud of,” Williamson said.

“To come with a gold medal against a world champion, Olympic champion, a world record holder, is something that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.

“It’s just a dream come true and it just goes to prove, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”

And Williamson’s triumph came after Mollie O’Callaghan defied stress fractures in her back to claim her second gold medal of the Glasgow Games and seventh in total.

The emerging legend’s 1:54.66 effort in the women’s 200m freestyle was good enough to hold off compatriot Lani Pallister, who added a silver medal to the women’s 400m freestyle gold she won on the first day of competition.

O’Callaghan did not even manage a smile after what she admitted was “probably not one of my best swims”, but said competing at the Games after initially being told she would not be able to was a “privilege”.

“I’m pretty proud of myself to getting up to this moment and I’m proud of my team for sticking by me,” O’Callaghan said.

“When I got told I wasn’t able to do it, I just wanted to do it even more.

“I’m very grateful to have a great team behind me that got me up on the blocks.”

Sam Short’s challenges might pale in comparison to those faced by his peers, but after cruising to the most comfortable of victories in the men’s 400m freestyle, Australia’s most in-form swimmer opened up on the difficulties of consistently finding himself a considerable distance in front of the pack.

“I’m getting a bit used to it (being out front on his own), now. It’s hard, but I prefer to have it that way for a championship,” Short said.

“I wish I was versing Thorpey (Ian Thorpe) 20-something years ago, so I could see how much more I could get out of myself.

Short completed the first mission of a jam-packed program with a time of 3:41.25 in the final, standing at the top of an all-Australian podium alongside silver medallist Elijah Winnington and bronze winner Ben Goedemans.

Alex Perkins, another Dolphin with plenty of work to do in Glasgow, produced a 25.37sec to win the women’s 50m butterfly, which she called a “relief”.

“It’s been a big couple of days, a bit more racing than I’m used to, but I’m just really proud of myself that I was able to back up and get the job done,” Perkins said.

Australia’s day was perfectly capped off by the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay team of Flynn Southam, Kyle Chalmers, Shayna Jack and Meg Harris, who blitzed the field in setting a new Games record of 3:19.36.

The quartet each added another gold medal to the one they claimed as part of winning men’s and women’s relay teams on the first day of competition.

WA’s Iona Anderson cruised through to the women’s 100m backstroke final, but was pipped by fellow Australian Hannah Fredericks by one-hundredth of a second after a semifinal which shaped as a dead heat for much of the race.