Sydney University’s Matt Abood helped the resurrection of Australian swimming as part of the gold medal-winning men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on day two of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The Australians posted a winning time of 3min.13.44sec, with Tommaso d’Orsogna hitting the water first, and Abood, James Magnussen and Cameron McEvoy swimming the other three legs to edge out South Africa, who finished in 3:15.17.
Having been a late call-up to the Games squad following the retirement of Eamon Sullivan, Abood made the most of his opportunity by forcing his way into the final four with an outstanding relay swim earlier today – recording the third fastest split of any of the 32 swimmers in the race.
The Sydney University Swimming Club member has made three world championship teams for Australia and was a member of the 4×100-metre freestyle relay team that won gold in Shanghai in 2011, but has never swum at an Olympic or Commonwealth Games.
He dead-heated with Magnussen in April this year. But when Magnussen won the swim-off Abood thought he would end up with the Australia A squad that will be competing at a meet in Los Angeles this weekend.
But the popular 28-year-old’s fortunes changed with the retirement of Sullivan, and he has capped a wonderful career with gold.
Abood wasn’t the only Sydney University athlete to star in the opening days of the 20th Commonwealth Games.
Sydney University Football Club members Ed Jenkins and Greg Jeloudev, who is an Elite Athlete Program (EAP) sports scholarship holder, won bronze with the Australian Sevens team at Ibrox Stadium.
Jenkins, a former EAP member, was captain of the Australian Sevens team, who defeated Samoa 24-nil in the play-off for third..
Sydney University could have another medallist in coming days, with Anneliese Rubie making it to the semi-final for the women’s 400m.
