Sarah Vasey secured a resounding victory in the women's 50m breaststroke to give Team England their first medal of the day and get her country off to the best start imaginable in the pool on Day 2.

It was Team England's 99th gold medal in swimming events in Commonwealth Games history. 

Emerging from the water after her dive, Vasey looked completely out of the pack, but her powerful, effective technique ensured that she wasn't out of the mix for long, storming through the group to storm to gold. 

Beating second-placed Jamaican Alia Atkinson and Australia's Leiston Picket by 0.16 seconds and 0.18 seconds respectively, Vasey won gold by the skin of her teeth, but emerged victorious nonetheless. 

Spinning around in disbelief after realising her achievement, 21-year-old Vasey shocked the home crowd as she was classed as a rank outsider coming into the pool.

The 2017 Aquatics Championship competitor's time of 30.60 seconds was enough to beat Games record holder Atkinson, and she looked good value for her win, too, putting in a fine display.

She said: "I just wanted to join the gold rush that went on last night from the English team."

"I cried when he (James Wilby) won, I was an emotional wreck. It's nice to see how hard someone's worked then they finally get the glory for what they've done, which is really inspiring. Last night was so good to watch, and I'm sharing a room with Aimee (Willmott) so when she came back and I saw a medal, I was like 'I want one of those!'.

"I knew I was in a good position but I didn't want to get my hopes up about it, I was just thinking about the process of it. My finishes in the heats and the semi's weren't great, so I knew if I just nailed my finish then I'd be in a really good position. 

"I've got the 100m later in the week so the 50m was just a bonus event for me, all my training was more based around the 100m because that's in the Olympics and that's where I want to be, so the 50m was just a bonus event and using it as confidence.

"The swims last night, watching it in the stands was what got me going, we got four golds last night, two bronze, I just wanted to be a part of it as well."