Wow! David was amazing! From the very start of his race David was way in the lead. After 10 laps David was almost half a length ahead of any other swimmer. The other swimmers were all fairly closely packed about 25 metres behind David.

By the time David reached 20 laps he was close to lapping the final swimmer in the pack. His lead was still about 25 metres, if not more. The crowd weren't cheering as much as they could at the beginning but they got louder during the final ten laps.

As David reached the final three laps it was clear the gold was his, noone else stood a chance! The crowd were now getting louder and cheering him on to the end. As David reached the end of his final lap, securing a gold medal for Wales, he still looked strong enough to do the whole race again (in fact, in training he does four times this distance every day!) The next swimmer after David was the Canadian Andrew Hurd, who came in almost 12 seconds later, and in third position was Hercules Prinsloo of South Africa.

This means that David will be coming home from the Commonwealth Games with both a bronze and a gold medal.  The 2008 Olympics beckon as David's career builds towards that ultimate goal of an Olympic Gold.

Photograph of medals used with kind permission of Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation.