By Roger Vaughan and Ian Chadband in Glagow

Cam McEvoy’s Glasgow double whammy has him looking to Los Angeles with confidence as he headlined another big night for Australia’s Commonwealth Games swim team.

The sprint ace dominated the 50m freestyle final early on Monday morning (AEST), going under 21 seconds for only the second time.

McEvoy’s Games-record 20.97 followed his 20.88 world record in March and continued his remarkable swimming renaissance.

He led home an Australian medal sweep in the event – one of five swimming gold medals on day three – but the time was the bigger deal ahead of defending his Olympic title at the Los Angeles Games.

It is McEvoy’s first individual gold medal at his third Commonwealth Games.

“It (gold) is really good, but I’m more excited about ducking under the 21-second barrier,” he said.

“So, yeah, a double whammy for me. It was a really good night.

“I really wanted to prove to myself that I can consistently get under that (21 seconds). So to do that for a second time, that brings me a lot of confidence for the world championships next year, LA, moving forward.

“I already know that there’s some low-hanging fruit that I can knock off.

There’s a few levers I can pull between now and LA.”

After a disappointing Tokyo Olympics, McEvoy took a sabbatical and nearly left the sport. He completely overhauled his training and returned for a stunning Paris triumph in the 50m freestyle.

“Prior to Paris, I still had the, I guess … the demons to work with in terms of my Olympic relationship,” he said.

“I was able to overcome them, but also I’ve been open-sourcing this type of training for a long time.

“The world is getting faster. I can’t just cruise into it.”

Flynn Southam won silver and Jamie Jack was third to complete the Australian sweep.

Just as McEvoy continued to rule the one-lap dash, Lani Pallister remained similarly untouchable in distance freestyle events at the Games and turned the 1500m into a personal time trial and her second Glasgow gold.

After taking out the 400m on day one, Pallister won the 1500 by nearly 18 seconds as the women’s event made its debut at the Games.

But there was no Australian procession in the men’s 4x200m freestyle final.

For once, it was a genuine race and England led at the last change before Kai Taylor’s blistering anchor leg delivered the last gold medal of day three and another Games record.

Sam Short, Harry Turner, Ed Sommerville and Taylor, the son of swimming great Hayley Lewis, clocked seven minutes 1.47 seconds to break the Games record Australia set in Birmingham.

Iona Anderson had an emotional hug with her Scott grandmother after winning the 100m backstroke – she had tartan nails as a nod to her heritage -, while opening ceremony baton bearer Tim Hodge successfully defended his Games 100m backstroke S9 title.

Australian swimmers have now collected 16 gold medals in three days, entrenching their country atop the overall Games medal standings.

Also on day three, Australian Matthew Temple suffered a bad case of deja vu, again losing to Canadian star Josh Liendo in a record-breaking 100m butterfly final.

Liendo beat Temple by one one-hundredth of a second and fellow Australian Ben Armbruster took bronze.

The Olympic silver medallist clocked 50.42 seconds while Temple touched the wall in 50.43, going under the Games record of 50.63 that the Australian had set on day two in the semi-finals.

Liendo also won gold in the 100m butterfly four years ago at the Birmingham Games and Temple dead-heated for silver with English swimmer James Guy.

Gemma Sellick (silver) and Victoria Belando Nicholson (bronze) won medals behind England’s Alice Tai in the women’s 100m backstroke S9 and Harrison Vig won bronze behind Hodge in the backstroke.

Sienna Toohey was third in the 100m breaststroke, while Mollie O’Callaghan, Meg Harris and Shayna Jack were the fastest three 100m freestyle semi-finalists.

Similarly, Alex Perkins and Brittany Casteluzzo were quickest in the 100m butterfly semis.

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