The 18-year-old obliterated the rest of the field to set a new Games record, finishing more than two seconds ahead of Australia's defending champion Alicia Coutts with bronze going to Scotland's Hannah Miley to keep the home fans ticking over with contentment.

O'Connor led from the starting buzzer and Coutts could do nothing but trail in her wake as the young swimmer from Bath touched home in a time of 2min 08.21sec to take over two seconds off the record held by the Australian.

"I knew it would be so hard to get a medal because of the strength of the field so I can't ask for any more," said O'Connor.

"Hannah's [Miley] been my role model and it's been great to train with her."

Arianna Vanderpool Wallace created history tonight by becoming the first swimmer from the Bahamas to medal at a Commonwealth Games ©Getty Images



O'Connor's teammate Fran Halsall claimed her second gold medal of Glasgow 2014 as she retained her 50m butterfly title and shaved 0.06 off her Games record with a time of 25.20sec.

Arianna Vanderpool Wallace won the first ever Commonwealth Games swimming medal for the Bahamas with her second place, while Australia's Brittany Elmslie came in third.

The start of the night saw the Aussie machine crank into gear straight away however, as Belinda Hocking and Emily Seebohm battled it out for gold in the women's 200m backstroke.

Hocking looked the stronger coming into the last 25m and duly touched home over a second clear of her team mate in a Games record of 2:07:24.

Canada's Hilary Caldwell was over half-a-second clear of fourth placed Elizabeth Simmonds of England to take the bronze.

James Magnussen is already getting his digs in on team mates Cameron McEvoy (centre) and Tommaso D'Orsogna (right) after taking the 100m freestyle win ©AFP/Getty Images



That was followed by a straight Australian shoot-out between the awesome threesome of James Magnussen, Cameron McEvoy and Tommasso D'Orsogna in the men's 100m freestyle.

World champion and Olympic silver medallist James Magnussen will have the bragging rights on the plane home as he added the Commonwealth Games title to his collection, leading McEvoy and D'Orsogna in an Australian clean sweep.

McEvoy was back in the pool for the last race of the evening and topped the podium this time along with David McKeon, Ned McKendry and Thomas Fraser-Holmes as they continued Australian dominance in the men's 4x200m freestyle taking nearly three seconds off the time they set in Delhi four years ago by registering 7:07:38.

Scottish quartet Daniel Wallace, Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott and Robbie Renwick sent the crowd away happy as they stormed to a silver medal ahead of South Africa in a thrilling finale.

Liam Tancock's bronze in the 50m backstroke saw him become England's most successful male swimmer in Commonwealth Games history ©Getty Images



Ben Treffers first Commonwealth Games gold medal in the 50m backstroke saw him follow in his father Mark's footsteps after he won gold representing New Zealand in the 400m individual medley at Christchurch 1974.

The younger Treffers was donning the green and gold of Australia however and his time of 24.67 was enough to see him finish ahead of compatriot Mitch Larkin and England's Liam Tancock.

World record holder Tancock was the defending champion and his bronze medal was a record third medal in this event while it also saw him become the first English male swimmer to collect nine medals at the Commonwealth Games.

There was no real surprise in the women's Para-sport 100m breaststroke SB9 race as six-time Paralympic and world champion Sophie Pascoe registered New Zealand's first gold medal in the pool, touching home in a time of 1:19.36 ahead of Australia's Madeleine Scott and home favourite Erraid Davies.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related Stories
July 2014: Australia top England in pool with four more gold medals at Glasgow 2014
July 2014: Elliott sets world record as Australia continue gold medal charge at Glasgow 2014
July 2014: Miley and Murdoch power to pool glory on golden night for Scotland
April 2014: Hosts Scotland name largest ever aquatics squad for Glasgow 2014
April 2014: World champions Campbell, Sprenger and Magnusson headline 59-strong Australian swimming squad for Glasgow 2014