Australia Blast 3:09.49 For Men’s 4×100 Free GR, #9 All-Time; Southam Sets 100 Free GR on leadoff

2026 Commonwealth Games

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Australia dominated the men’s 4×100 free from the get-go in tonight’s final, lowering their Games record from 2022 by over a second and a half as they took the win by 2.20 seconds over England in a time of 3:09.49.

Their swim tonight ranks as the ninth-fastest swim in history, and the second-fastest Australian swim ever. The Australian record stands at 3:08.97 from the 2025 World Championships, where they won gold over Italy and the USA.

Three of the four swimmers from that relay were in action tonight, with Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor, and Kyle Chalmers returning on the same legs they swam in 2025. Harrison Turner was the new man, replacing Max Giuliani on the third leg and splitting 47.94, under his flat-start best of 48.21.

Southam set a huge personal best on the leadoff, touching in 47.09 to drop over half a second from his previous best of 47.69. He moves up to rank just outside the top ten in history, and becomes the #4 Australian.

Men’s 100 Freestyle, Australian All-Time Top 5

1. Cameron McEvoy (2016) – 47.04
2. Eamon Sullivan (2008) – 47.05
3. Kyle Chalmers (2021) – 47.08
4. Flynn Southam (2026) – 47.09
5. James Magnussen (2012) – 47.10

He also moves up to rank second in the world so far this season, only behind Egor Kornev. Southam split 22.56/24.53 tonight, adding significant front-end speed that we hadn’t seen from him before. He has dropped half a second in the 50 free this season, setting a PB of 21.72 at Australian Trials.

Kai Taylor notched 47.53 on the second leg, half a second slower than his split last summer, and Harrison Turner split 47.94. Kyle Chalmers swam yet another 46-point split on the anchor, splitting 46.93 for his 16th sub-47 relay split. No other nation has more of those than Chalmers – the U.S. has 16 in total.

Compared to their national record from last summer, all three flying splits were slightly slower while Southam was seven tenths faster on the leadoff.  The difference between the Games record from 2022 and the swim tonight came almost exclusively from the 1.45 second difference between Southam’s respective leadoffs of 47.09 and 48.54.

Split Comparison

Adding Southam’s leadoff tonight to the rest of the relay from last summer, Australia’s time would drop to 3:08.29 – just 0.05 seconds off the USA’s super-suited world record from the 2008 Olympics. After all the talent the USA have had in recent years, it could be Australia who finally lower that mark.

England set a new national record of 3:11.69 for silver, with 18-year-old Gabe Shepherd splitting 47.73 and Jacob Whittle anchoring in 47.70. Jacob Mills led off in 48.02 for them, a solid start to his first Commonwealth Games.

Josh Liendo (48.13) and Pieter Coetze (48.38) were other notable leadoffs for Canada and South Africa respectively. South Africa got a 48.29 anchor leg from Chad le Clos, competing at his fifth Games, as they won bronze in 3:13.99. He now has 19 Commonwealth medals, the most of any man and one behind Emma McKeon for the overall lead.

Duncan Scott split 47.48 on the second leg for Scotland, but the three other legs were 49.26, 49.27, and 49.26 and they finished 4th in 3:15.27. They sliced six tenths of a second off the Scottish record from the 2018 Games.