MONKEY BUSINESS STILL PLAGUING OUR SWIM TEAM

October 6: It appears those pesky Delhi monkeys are still perched precariously on the shoulders of our men's swim team after another night of near misses in the Commonwealth Games pool last night.

While Gold Coast teenager Leiston Pickett continued the girls golden run, upsetting breaststroke great Leisel Jones in a stunning 50m breaststroke final, the boys continued to luck out.

Apart from Para Sport king Matt Cowdrey in the 50 and 100m freestyle, the Aussie men have not won an individual men's gold medal in swimming since Manchester in 2002.

And not even our own "Monkey" could break the drought.

As hard as he tried our "Monkey" Kenrick Monk fell two one-hundredths of a second short of the gold medal in the 200m freestyle final, stolen by a flying Scot by the name of Robbie Renwick.

Renwick took the victory in 1:47.90 to Monk's 1:47.88 with former Newcastle-born surf swimmer Tommy Fraser-Holmes third in 1:48.22.

"Two one-hundredths, you have to be joking, I'll have to stop biting my fingernails," said Monk, the man who first came into the spotlight when he replaced Ian Thorpe in the event in Melbourne four years ago.

It was then England's world champion Liam Tancock who blasted his way to gold over Aussie Olympians Hayden Stoeckel and Ashley Delaney in the 50m backstroke final.

Tancock, the defending 100m champion blasted off the blocks and was never headed winning in 24.62 with Stoeckel taking silver in 25.08 and Delaney 25.21.

It is now up to Geoff Huegill, Mitch Patterson and Andrew Lauterstein to see if they can break the drought - but they will have to overcome the Kenyan Jason Dunford, the Commonwealth record holder in the 100m butterfly.

And the breaststroke boys Christian Sprenger and Brenton Rickard in the 100m breaststroke final will have to overcome New Zealander Glen Snyders - who is coached by Aussie Mark Regan - the man who had steered Petria Thomas to so many great wins and was a part of Australia's Olympic teams in 1996 and 2000.

But tonight is a new night that will also see Cowdrey in action in the Para Sport S9 50m freestyle final; Stoeckel and Delaney in the 200m backstroke; Leisel Jones, Tessa Wallace and Sarah Katsoulis in the 200m breaststroke; Emily Seebohm, Belinda Hocking and Sophie Edington in the 100m backstroke; Alicia Coutts and Seebohm in the 100m freestyle and both the men's and women's 4x200m freestyle relay.