The Australian men’s 4 x 100m relay Commonwealth Games team swam a near perfect race and James Magnussen’s leg helped power them to a gold medal around 6.30am Australian time.
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11.30am
IT was James Magnussen's first swim of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and he has turned it into a gold medal.
His manager, Mark Jones, said it was just what the world champion needed to boost his confidence.
"For him to come out and swim a time like 47.49 in his first swim of the meet is huge," he said.
"It's very important , it builds a sense of momentum.
"It shows his confidence is up and gave him a chance to shake out the cobwebs."
As the race panned out Jones said Magnussen and the rest of the Australian team could have been sucked in to the tactics used by the South Africans but did well to swim their own race.
"There's a lot of tactics used in these races and South Africa stacked their best swimmers at the front to get in their heads," Jones said.
"So they opened up a big lead early but credit to the Aussies they didn't over race."
Magnussen will now turn his attention to the 100 metre freestyle.
His first heat will take place at about 9pm tonight followed by the semi finals tomorrow.
All going well, the finals will then be held 24 hours later, early Monday morning.
The South Africans went out fast in the relay but it was Magnussen’s second 50m that put Australia into a position to claim gold and Cameron McEvoy did that with a strong final leg.
Magnussen swam a 47.49 split and now has a gold medal to go with it in his first competitive swim at Glasgow.
“It felt alright and it’s good to blow out the cobwebs early in the week,” he told the host television broadcaster directly after the race.
“I think everyone’s done really well and it’s good to have Big Dog back in the relay,” he joked about teammate Matt Abood.
The swim sets up a potential blockbuster against Aussie teammate Cameron McEvoy in the 100m final later in the meet.
The Aussie team comprised of James Magnussen, Cameron McEvoy, Tommaso D’Orsogna and Matt Abood.
South Africa won silver and England bronze in the event.
It capped another golden night for Australia with a total of 4 gold medals in the pool.