Kaylee claims her first gold in quest to complete the toughest double in world swimming

THE quiet achiever of the Australian swim team Kaylee McKeown reminded everyone of her golden place in the team, delivering a blistering finish in teh 100m backstroke final.

The current world record holder fought off a challenge from the Canadian Olympic silver medallist Kylie Masse and notching up a Commonweath Games record in the process.

Masse, 26, known for her slick starts, had held the record from the Gold Coast four years ago, and the Canadian took the race out hard, turning at the 50m mark first with McKeown turning in third.

But McKeown powered home, catching Masse with 20m to go and out touching her to clock 58.60s. Masse’s time was 58.73s and Welsh swimmer Medi Harris was third. The other Australian Minna Atherton, who had got off to a terrific start, just missed a medal, finishing in fourth place. McKeown is famed for her toughness in the final few strokes, and she says she draws inspiration from her father, whom she helped care for before he died of cancer two years ago.

Watching intently from the stands to get an insight into the Australian’s technique was the coaching staff of another Canadian, Summer Mcintosh, one of the Aussie’s other Canadian rival. McKeown has pencilled in an audacious 200m backstroke - 200m individual medley double, requiring back to back swims in the heats and finals with less than an hour between each race in each session. In the finals, there is also a medal ceremony in the middle. McKeown said she would see how a sore shoulder feels before attempting the double schedule.

“My shoulder has been playing up a bit, so we’re gonna see how we come up in the morning and see what happens,” she said. “But the best I can do is wing it and see what happens. There is no pressure, it’s fun at the Comm games, and I think that’s exactly the way to race it.”