Alongside successful showings for the bowlers, but early-exit heartbreak for debuting boxer Tommy Teers, the women’s 4x100m freestyle team qualified seventh-fastest with a new record of 3min. 55.88sec. in the first morning of heats at Tollcross International.
A clean sweep of sub-1min. legs ensured they smashed the previous Guernsey mark of 3-59.17 from Birmingham 2022.
Tatiana Tostevin started them off with a 59.16, backed up by Tallulah-Mae Rautenbach’s 58.81 and fellow debutant Emma Bourgaize’s 59.67. Orla Rabey brought them home with a leading split of 58.24.
They qualified for finals night by being among the eight fastest teams, outperforming the Cayman Islands (3-58.11) and the Isle of Man (4-01.51), with Canada not starting.
‘I was pretty confident we could break that record, knowing the form the four swimmers were in,’ coach Sara Parfit said.
‘I was surprised to see how much we broke it by. That was so exciting – they did an amazing job.
‘It’s a huge honour to make a final at the Commonwealth Games – the girls have worked extremely hard and deserved to be in that final.’
The men’s quartet of Charlie-Joe Hallett, Zach Maiden, Henry Bolton and Ronny Hallett posted 3-39.34 for 13th quickest overall. Both Charlie-Joe Hallett and Bolton went under 54sec. for their legs.
Most of Guernsey’s 12 swimmers also competed individually at the morning session, highlights including Rabey’s 28.39 in the 50m butterfly – 0.02sec. shy of her own record.
Maiden posted a huge 50m backstroke PB, clocking 29.24, just 0.10sec. ahead of fellow debutant Bolton in the neighbouring lane.
Similarly, as Delphine Riley clocked 4-36.16 over 400m freestyle, she finished exactly 5sec. clear of a PB swim from younger sister Elodie Riley.
However, Teers faced an early end to his campaign at the Scottish Event Campus, being outpointed in his opening contest.
Competing in the 55kg category, he lost on a 3-1 split decision to Kiribati’s Eriu Temakau.
The Sarnian started strongly and would have won the first round if not for a warning and point deduction, but his opponent had the upper hand in the next two.
In a nearby hall, bowler Jason Greenslade dominated his morning match against Botswana’s Diza Mphotho.
After going 3-0 down, he won the opening set 10-3, then demolished his opponent 16-1 in the second.
He followed that up with a commanding performance against Namibia’s Waylon Wentzel where he was never headed and prevailed 7-3, 11-2.
The Guernsey women’s pair of Rose Ogier and Ali Merrien won their morning match against Australia with the same 2-0 scoreline.
They lost the opening end but still won the first set 10-1, before holding onto an early advantage to take the next 5-2.
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