Mollie O’Callaghan has been sensationally dethroned as Commonwealth Games 100m freestyle champion by Meg Harris as the Australian tsunami of swimming medals gushed relentlessly in Glasgow.

Harris’s shock triumph came after Jenna Forrester continued her brilliant meet with a second gold medal, adding the 400m individual medley title to her 200m backstroke crown.

Alex Perkins made it a perfect 26th birthday present as she lifted the 100m butterfly crown – her second triumph in three days after years of near-misses in the major individual international races.

Jenna Forrester set the tone for Australia on day four of the Commonwealth Games. Photo: AAP

Sam Williamson, already champion in the 100m, again upset the odds to produce a thunderous late burst to get up for gold in the 50m breaststroke dash.

Para swimmer Beau Matthews added another gold in the 100m breaststroke SB9 final, while Sam Short powered home to win the 800m freestyle final.

O’Callaghan had been expected to again battle through the pain barrier to defend her crown but instead had to settle for the silver in another Australian 1-2-3, as Shayna Jack, in her final competition, grabbed the bronze.

The 22-year-old O’Callaghan, who’s come into the Games having to battle with stress fractures and bone bruising in her back, had looked imperious as she won the 200m crown.

“Very happy. Look, I wasn’t meant to be here,” O’Callaghan told reporters.

“So, to be on the podium with these two amazing ladies – Meg absolute killed it tonight, so did Shayna. Like, honestly, I’m just so happy.

“After the 200m, I kind of re-evaluated my plan. I didn’t feel like myself and went back to the drawing board.”

But this time, it was Albury’s Harris, the 24-year-old double Olympic relay champ, who had the five-time Olympic champ’s measure, leading her at halfway, with O’Callaghan turning in third.

The Queensland star couldn’t peg back the lead as Harris hit the wall in 52.90 seconds to O’Callaghan’s 53.25 and Jack’s 53.38.

Forrester continued her dream week, following up her shock backstroke victory – an event she only decided to compete in at late notice – with a medley triumph she annexed from start to finish.

Leading after the opening butterfly leg, the 23-year-old stretched away from her English rival Amalie Smith on her specialist backstroke leg, increasing her advantage to nearly five seconds, before comfortably holding on over the last two breaststroke and freestyle legs.

Forrester clocked 4 minutes 31.19 seconds, with Smith timed at 4:33.70, with another Australian Ella Ramsay, who’d been disappointed to just miss out on a medal in the 100m breaststroke, grabbing the bronze in 4:37.12.

Perkins continues to enjoy the most extraordinary meet, winning her fourth gold in as many nights – and on a landmark day.

The 50m fly champion was in a different class to her chasers, stopping the clock at 56.38, with Scotland’s Keanna MacInnes second, almost a second down.

Australian Brittany Castelluzzo was fourth, agonisingly missing out on a medal by a hundredth of a second.

Williamson’s charge for the wall in the one-lap breaststroke was one of the highlights of the meet as he powered through over the second half of the race to prevail in 26.50, 0.27sec clear of South African Michael Houlie and 0.44 ahead of English Olympic great Adam Ramsay-Peaty.

Matthews, seen as a future para star, came of age, clocking 1:09.41 to better Tim Hodge, Australia’s baton bearer at the opening ceremony.

Hodge, who had won the 100m backstroke S9 the night before, had to settle for bronze behind New Zealander Joshua Willmer.

Kyle Chalmers moved closer to the 10th gold medal that would take him past Ian Thorpe as the most successful Australian male swimmer at the Commonwealth Games as he qualified fastest for the 100m freestyle final.

“If I win, that’s fantastic. If I get a medal, that’s amazing. I actually just want to enjoy that moment that I’ve worked so hard for, for so long,” he said.

Rose Davies overtakes Kenya’s Diana Wanza on her way to winning women’s 10000m gold in Glasgow. Photo: AAP

Davies mows down Kenyan

Rose Davies was “running scared” but need not have been as she blitzed the field to create history as the first Australian woman to win Commonwealth Games gold in the 10,000m.

In the absence of Scottish icon Eilish McColgan, who didn’t overcome a toe injury in time to defend her title in Glasgow, Davies mowed down runaway leader Diana Wanza, who had opened up a huge lead with six laps remaining.

Davies gradually reeled in her Kenyan rival and surged to the front with two laps to go, pulling clear to win a tactical race in 31 minutes 39.32 seconds.

It was the 26-year-old’s first Games medal and despite an eventual winning margin of more than 10 seconds, she didn’t feel gold was secure until the final few strides.

“I was running scared. Anything can happen and I had no idea where the girls were,” Davies said.

“I was trying to look at the big screen but I was just going as hard as I could in the last hundred metres. Once I crossed the line I was very happy.

“I could tell (Wanza) was slowing but I wasn’t sure how much of a gap I had, and I knew the race for third, they were coming too.

“They could’ve finished really fast so I was just still trying to run my race and run as fast as I could and finish really strong.”

Wanza claimed silver and Rwanda’s Florence Niyonkuru took bronze, with Australia’s second runner Lauren Ryan further back in fifth.

“I feel like I ran a really smart race and didn’t make any silly moves … but obviously watching a medal slip away is heartbreaking,” Ryan said.

“I’m pretty devastated and I think my family’s pretty devastated.”

McColgan is the face of Glasgow 2026 on promotional banners throughout the city but is recovering from a toe injury and was one of several high-profile athletes who pulled out at the last minute.

Kate McDonald holds Australia’s flag aloft after winning individual gymnastics gold in Glasgow. Photo: AAP

McDonald quells doubt

Listening to “California Dreamin'”, Australian gymnast Kate McDonald hit the ground running on her road to Los Angeles by winning uneven bars gold at the Commonwealth Games.

It was sweet redemption for McDonald, who banished haunting memories of her “pretty poo” finish at the 2022 Birmingham Games with a near-flawless performance at Glasgow International Stadium, scoring 14.333 points.

So dominant was the 25-year-old that she was the only gymnast to hit the 14.000-point mark and blitzed next-best, Canadian great Ellie Black, by 0.433 points, with Wales’ Emily Roper following for bronze.

Finishing seventh on the uneven bars in 2022, McDonald has now made it two from two events in Glasgow after winning the team gold medal.

“I’m over the moon,” McDonald said.

“I bombed in that (2022) final, and that’s obviously in the back of my head.

“(I felt) pretty poo. I knew I was capable of winning.

“I did want this medal really badly.”

Wearing her headphones during warm-up, McDonald said cycling through her competition playlist – from AC/DC to Dom Dolla – helped her fight off memories of the 2022 final.

Whether a coincidence or a good omen in her 2028 Los Angeles qualifying campaign, her final song before competing was a remix of “California Dreamin'”.

“Putting music in helps ground me and that helps the voice in my head stay nice,” McDonald said.

“”Don’t be poo, don’t fall. Be perfect, it’s not going to be perfect’ – there’s a lot of background noise.

“I’m just going to again try and learn from this experience and bring it into LA – hopefully, we qualify a team for LA, hopefully I’m on that team for LA.”

Having coached McDonald for 17 years at Victorian-based Cheltenham Youth Club, Jeb Silsbury was in tears as he watched the gold medal-winning performance.

“Watching from the crowd is the worst experience I have ever had,” Silsbury said.

“I’m a very, very lucky coach. Not many coaches in any sport get to really experience a relationship and a bond.”

McDonald can add to her Games tally when she competes in the floor final on the final day of the gymnastics competition.

Should she take out gold, she’ll become Australia’s equal-most decorated gymnast at the Games with Joshua Jefferis, Andrei Kravtsov and Lauren Mitchell on four gold medals.

As McDonald led the charge in the women’s field, James Hardy claimed bronze on the rings and the floor routine exercise.

Just as the team bronze was Australia’s first since the 2010 Delhi Games, Hardy’s two individual bronze medals ended the nation’s 16-year drought on the apparatuses in the men’s field.

The 23-year-old competed with a pink ribbon painted on the nail of his right hand ring finger in tribute to mum Sally, who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.

Sally is in remission after undergoing surgery, but she and the Hardy family were unable to travel to Glasgow.

“It’s been in the back of my mind, but obviously nice to know that she’s just doing really well,” Hardy said.

“Spoken to mum and dad before, they’re absolutely, you know, just so, so, so proud.

“It’s very emotional. They would have loved to here.”

The 23-year-old did enjoy ample support from the rest of the Australian squad in the crowd, with teammates Jesse Moore, Ritam Malik, Ben Foster and Tru Hagens also painting their nails.

Malik missed out on pommel horse bronze by 0.500 points, while Moore finished second-last in seventh after falling off the apparatus.

A sore Georgia Godwin fell short in her vault title defence, finishing fifth.

McDonald’s teammate Ruby Pass, aged 19, finished last in eighth after a fall during her uneven bars routine.

—AAP