Silver lining for Houlie as he’s touched off for gold

It speaks volumes for Michael Houlie’s ambition that in the early moments after winning a Commonwealth Games silver medal inside Glasgow’s Tollcross International Swimming Centre, he was “annoyed” with himself.

“Annoyed” because he knows he had gold at his fingertips. “I know that I’ve been faster than this”. Indeed he had. He even broke the Games record on the first leg during the 100m earlier in the competition, where he’d turned in 26.38sec.

Anything near a repeat of that would have won him the gold in the 50m final, which is why he was so annoyed. He’d come so close, leading for 40m before being caught by a surging Sam Williamson. The Australian touched in 26.50, with Houlie following him in 26.77.

Never mind that he had beaten the greatest-ever men’s breaststroker, Adam Peaty-Ramsay, to the wall. The Englishman had to settle for third in 26,94. But spare a thought for South Africa’s other finalist, Chris Smith.

Almost forgotten in the hype around Houlie, who was the meat in a sandwich of Williamson and Peaty-Ramsay, was Smith. He touched fourth, 0.01 seconds behind the breaststroke GOAT. 0.01 seconds separating him from one of the greatest nights of his career – and he’s still only 20.

“It’s not what I wanted but it is what I got,” said Houlie in the media mixed zone. “I can’t really remember the race in detail but I will take a look and get the feedback and move forward. There’s a lot of things I can say technically weren’t great but it’s one race. We move forward, I’ve got to be grateful with silver, even though I was here for gold.”

The other medal on the night came from Erin Gallagher, one of the veterans on the team at the age of 27 but having the fun and Games of her life. The 100m butterfly bronze is added to her 50m ‘fly bronze earlier in the week and adds another medal to her glittering CV.

Gallagher had earlier declared these 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games would be her last, a perfect way to bookmark that part of her career which started in Glasgow in 2014, traversed through Gold Coast in 2018, Birmingham in 2022 and now back in the Scottish city.

“Things have come full circle for me, so these are my last Commonwealth Games. I’m the veteran now but the time is right.” That doesn’t mean she is retiring but she is starting to prepare for the departure hall. “Next year will be my last World Champs and that too will be a full circle. My first of those was in Budapest in 2017 and next year they’re back in Budapest.”

Between all these major championships there’s been a string of other international competitions, including two Olympics. Along the way Gallagher has collected a vault of medals and she’s blossomed into a queen of the pool, a special person in and out of the water. The student that was a Grade 10 learner at St Mary’s DSG at her first Commonwealth Games is now the experienced teacher.

And she has never looked happier. The effervescent serial winner was positively bouncing when she came out of the water after hanging on to win her second individual medal for Team SA at these Commonwealth Games, a 100m butterfly bronze to go with her 50m ‘fly silver, and also to be added to the 4x100m freestyle relay bronze she won with her teammates.

“Honestly, I knew this race was going to be a dogfight. From the heats when I saw the girls going hard in the morning I knew that it was going to be hard. I’m so, so elated to have touched the wall and seeing that third place. I think I got it by about 0.01 and I just said, ‘thank you, God’. I think I was actually thanking Him for keeping me alive in those last five metres.”

Gallagher had charged to the wall in lane two, turning in second place in 26.51, behind the formidable Australian Alex Perkins. She held a 0.14sec gap on Keanna Macinnes and 0.39sec over Brittany Castelluzzo with 50m remaining. As Perkins stretched out the gap, the others behind Gallagher closed on her. It was all happening on her left down the final straight,

Macinnes, cheered on by her home crowd in the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, found extra zip in lane three to go past her. Perkins was a body length clear in lane four and Castelluzzo was charging in lane five.

Yes, the official margin between Gallagher and Castelluzzo was 0.01 – 57.39 beating 57.40 for bronze.

“Before our race our High Performance manager, Dean Price, had some advice for me, so I changed my tactic and I had Dean in my mind the whole time. His advice paid off but I really had to hang on and I’m so happy to come away with a medal. There’s not much more than I can ask for,” she said.

“Last Commies (2022) I didn’t even make the final for the 100 ‘fly, so just making the final was an improvement but to come away with a medal speaks for itself. All glory to God. That was not me, that was Him out there.”

She pointed to the spirit that’s infused into this Team SA swim squad at these Games, which has seen them as the only code on the medals board with four full days banked.

“When you walk into the team area there’s energy using out of everyone and we’re working as a team, feeding off one another’s energy and like Olivia’s (Nel) swim last night, it spurred on the next swimmer, with Aimee’s (Canny) swim it spurred on the next. It’s this constant snowball effect and we’re only past halfway through the competition so I’m just excited to see what we have in store for the remainder.”

Gallagher has completed her individual events and now has two more relays to contribute. With the vibe and the energy she talked about while taking deep breaths of air, we can be sure that the swimming party hasn’t ended.

Eleven medals so far and still counting.

Elsewhere, reigning Commonwealth Games 50m champion Lara van Niekerk won both her races, going 30.23 in the morning and then taking her semi-final inn 30.63 to qualify second fastest for the final. She sets such high expectations of herself that she said she needs to go back and look “at where I got a few things wrong”.

The world will be on watch for the final. Rebecca Meder will join her in the final, after her 31.53 swim placed her eighth fastest overall, while Kaylene Corbett will be smacking her lips in anticipation of her preferred 200m after her 31.60 left her ninth overall, just missing out on the elite eight.