The England men's team, whose previous best was a bronze medal at the Manchester 2002 edition, won all of their matches on the way to the final, which saw them overcoming Malta 16-9 to take the title at the Aberdeen Sports Village Aquatics Centre in Scotland.

Joe O'Regan got the scoring underway in the gold medal game before goals from Tom Curwen, Glen Robinson and Jake Vincent ensured they were leading the first quarter 5-1.

Sean King added his name to the score sheet in the second quarter before O'Regan completed his hat trick to give England a 10-3 lead at half time.

Malta scored early in the third quarter but it was not enough to stop goals from King, Curwen and Jonny Kirk giving England a 14-6 lead at the end of the quarter.

Curwen then scored again to make sure the tournament was England's.

The English women celebrate their first ever Commonwealth Water Polo Championships gold ©Brian Battensby

Meanwhile, the England women, whose previous best was also a bronze, took on Canada in their final and came out on top 10-9 despite a particularly challenging game.

Canada got the scoring underway as Nikolina Mihajlovic gave them an early lead in the first minute, but England's Ciara Gibson-Byrne soon equalised.

Hazel Musgrove then scored for the victors but two goals from Canada's Kyra Christmas and Kelsey McKelvey put them ahead.

England battled back to a 6-3 lead on the strike of half time before a Gibson-Byrne penalty just before the end of the third quarter took the score to 9-5.

Musgrove then scored at the start of the fourth quarter to ensure England were safely into double figures with the title in their grasp.

The bronze medals went to Scotland's men as they defeated South Africa 6-5, while it was a reverse of that result in the women's bronze game as South Africa secured the medal with a 16-1 win over the hosts.

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