GOLDEN MEMORIES OF '94 AS AUSSIES RAISE THE BAR IN DELHI

October 7: Memories of the golden Games of 1994 in Victoria, Canada came flooding back with the Australian swim team's dominant performance in the Commonwealth pool in Delhi last night. Ian Hanson looks at the highlights of a remarkable night....

The team of '94 swept all before them as the likes of Kieren Perkins, Suzie O'Neill and Petria Thomas produced performances that left the rest of the Commonwealth in awe.

Often winning every gold medal on the program, producing performances that have inspired other countries to match the Aussies and there is no doubt that the Don Talbot led team set the platform for greatness.

Now the Aussies have to fight every metre of every race against swimmers from Kenya, South Africa, England, Canada and Scotland in the race for gold in the pool.

US-based Kenyan Jason Dunford spoilt the Geoff Huegill party when he edged out arguably Australia's most popular sportsman by just two one-hundredths of a second in the 50m butterfly final.

But it was like "Skippy" had won the gold medal after a stunning swim to win a silver medal. The smile said it all and it was a genuine smile and a genuine satisfaction of where he has come from after a major change in his lifestyle.

"Skippy's" is one of the great stories that every Australian can relate to - hard to imagine that he won gold back in 1998 and again in 2002 and has his sights set on 2012 in London.

One man who did win gold and in world record time was Para Sport king Matthew Cowdrey who continued to show just what an amazing swimmer he is with a stunning performance to defend his S9 50m freestyle gold medal.

After three days of swimming competition Cowdrey remains the only Australian male to have won an individual Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Once again it was the girls who dominated the podium with Leisel Jones, Tessa Wallace and Sarah Katsoulis producing the first clean sweep of the Games in the 200m breaststroke.

Jones had to dig as deep as she's ever dug to keep Wallace and training partner Katsoulis at bay as she won her seventh gold medal.

You get the feeling that Leisel may now concentrate her efforts for London on the 100m which she tackles later in the week. Gold in that event and the 4x100m medley relay will see her join two of the greats Ian Thorpe and O'Neill as winners of 10 Commonwealth Games gold.

Her victory already saw her become only the second female swimmer behind Petria Thomas (100m butterfly in 1994,1998 and 2002) and the second swimmer behind the great Mike Wenden (100m freestyle 1966, 1970 and 1974)  to win three Games gold in the one event.

Victory in the 100m breaststroke will make her the only swimmer to win two events three times - certainly something to be behold.

Golden moments from Alicia Coutts to add the 100m freestyle to her gold medal tally after taking the 200m individual medley and Emily Seebohm to finally break through for gold in the 100m backstroke set the scene for Australia's assault on the 4x200m freestyle relays which they won respectively in impressive style - just as they did in 1994.