The 21st century equivalent of the souped-up hot rod, a modded PC packed to the gills with glowing LEDs and other over-the-top adornments can be a unique way to show off your wild personality, or now even your Zen-like temperament , with a new PC case featuring a tank on top you can turn into a fully-functional and relaxing aquarium full of fish.
Chinese PC case maker MetalFish has recently added the Y2 Fish Tank Chassis to its lineup, which gets straight to the point when it comes to the case’s most marketable feature. Tom’s Hardware crunched the numbers on the case’s dimensions, which put its size at about 27 liters in total, although it appears as if the upper aquarium portion occupies about half of that, and if you go the fish route, you won’t be sticking any components in that 13.5 liter tank.
The Micro-ATX Y2 Fish Tank Chassis can accommodate a Micro-ATX or Mini-ITX motherboard inside its 1.5mm thick aluminum body, as well as a single 2.5-inch drive, a pair of 90mm fans, a graphics card up to 22cm in length (although a 20cm option is instead recommended), a 90mm tall CPU cooler, and a 1U or Flex ATX power supply. It also features colour-adjustable LED lighting inside the case, controlled by an included remote.
The aquarium up top is made from 5mm thick glass panels, with a 3mm thick panel of acrylic on the bottom keeping all the water and wildlife separate from the PC components below. A strip of LED lights arching over the aquarium’s open top provides daylight-simulating illumination, while an included pump and filtration system draws power from the PC case below using a USB connection.
The most obvious question that comes to mind with a creation like this is whether or not the excess heat from the PC can be used to keep the aquarium water warm, and, in turn, if the water in the aquarium can be used to help keep the PC running cooler. But with a price tag of around just $US75 ($104) for the Y2 Fish Tank Chassis in China, it doesn’t seem like MetalFish has gone the extra engineering mile to create a mutually beneficial symbiont relationship between the PC components and the aquarium. It’s just an over-the-top PC design that’s all but impossible to move or reposition once the fish move in.
Juniper is a drama with black comic edges about a fragmented family, and the unexpectedly life-affirming influence of its particularly tetchy matriarch. In the lead role is Charlotte Rampling, an actor blessed with an epically scornful side eye capable of withering a vase of flowers from across a room.
The film relies in no small degree on Rampling’s ability to deliver intensity from small gestures, because for most of the time she’s nearly immobile, rendered almost inert by a broken leg and a mysterious underlying health condition, while her temper is inflamed by copious amounts of gin served to her in large glass jugs.
The first feature from New Zealand writer-director Matthew J Saville (not to be confused with the Australian filmmaker Matt Saville), Juniper plays on the conventions of movies about families thrust together in trying circumstances, who learn to get over their differences only after some excruciating trial and error.
Saville and Rampling worked on revising the script for three days after their first meeting in Paris. Two weeks later, Rampling officially accepted the role.(Supplied: Transmission)
In particular, it’s about a cross-generational connection between Ruth and her grandson Sam (George Ferrier), a suicidal teen who attends a nearby private school and has never recovered from the death of his mother.
Sam’s athletic good looks and crown of golden hair give off the aura of a confident private-school jock, but this is a film where appearances deceive, and Sam is troubled in his privilege — while Ruth, in turn, is the unlikely figure to pull him out of his malaise.
Set in the 90s, the film unfolds in a grand, if unkempt house somewhere green and leafy in New Zealand. This family is wealthy, clearly, and when Ruth arrives from her home de ella in England after a considerable absence and in failing health, it initially appears like she might be the direct link to a moneyed bloodline in the Old Country.
“Juniper is a very personal story based on my experiences as a teenager,” Saville writes in his director’s statement.(Supplied: Transmission)
Ruth has an unconventional past, as a war correspondent who once traveled the globe witnessing some of the best and worst of humanity. Ella’s experience scarred her, we will learn, but it also earned her valuable wisdom.
Her drinking, as well as her bullying, seem to be a manifestation of some sort of PTSD, long left simmering and unaddressed. Her grandson de ella, who is left to help look after her while his father de ella (an excellent but mostly off-screen Marton Csokas) is called away to England, becomes the chief target of her rancour de ella.
The two are destined to become unlikely friends, but it takes time. As often occurs in scripts about grumpy old people and their influence on teenagers with their lives ahead of them, Ruth’s abrasiveness serves a purpose, even if it’s not initially clear.
Hal Ashby’s 1971 absurdist black comedy Harold and Maude dealt with some of these cross-generational currents—including teen depression—with a little more imagination and less predictability. It would have been nice if Saville’s film didn’t conform quite so obediently to the redemptive notes of its final act.
The role of Ruth was inspired by Saville’s grandmother, Moccy, who he described in The Spinoff as an “intelligent, funny, and at times brutal” woman.(Supplied: Transmission)
But Rampling makes it worth watching, even if you sense where it’s all heading. Ella’s role recalls her performance in another predominantly housebound film, Francois Ozon’s 2003 mystery Swimming Pool, where she played an irritable British author trying to write her next novel, clashing with the young, feisty daughter of her French publisher.
Saville doesn’t opt for any of that film’s dreamy Hitchcockian intrigue, but he does exploit the house’s rambling grandness, with its shadowy rooms and thresholds that offer views onto the verdant, slightly Gothic New Zealand countryside.
Downbeat indie rock and subtle zoom lenses help build an atmosphere of melancholy and cloistered tension, which extends to glimpses of Sam’s posh high school with its dark hallways and neurotic orderliness.
Saville succeeds in creating an emotional authenticity to Ruth and Sam’s difficult relationship, too, although it’s a pity he doesn’t linger in their mutually distrustful stage for longer.
As Rampling guides the film into its eventual emotional thaw, along the way she displays a range that occasionally surprises—in one especially poignant scene dragging herself ungracefully across the floor to get to a jug of booze.
Rampling is one of the great actors of her generation who remains a vital presence in anything she does. Quintessentially English but inexorably linked to European cinema (she’s lived and worked in France for decades) she possesses a sharpness and nuance that have never deserted her through the various stages of her career.
“The film is unsentimental … which is what I liked about it. I don’t like sentimentality,” Rampling told The Australian.(Supplied: Transmission)
After starting out as a model, she had her first roles in English movies during the swinging 60s before moving to the continent, becoming synonymous with the 70s peak of European auteur cinema in films such as Visconti’s The Damned and Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter.
Her work ethic and versatility have underwritten a prolific career since, and despite her professional Eurocentrism, she gained an Academy Award nomination for the 2015 drama 45 Years, and is continuing her role in the Hollywood behemoth Dune (part two releases next year), where she brings a welcome gravitas.
At the center of this modest, likeable New Zealand drama, she emanates a rich, layered sense of character. If you consider that Saville barely gives the audience much more than a few mocked up photos from Ruth’s past of her, and just a couple of backstory anecdotes, it’s a tribute to Rampling’s subtly embodied acting that the character emerges so fully formed.
As shadows of regret and anger in her performance give way to warmer accents of love and kindness, not to mention a rascally appetite for fun, she makes the film’s slightly worn conception believable, and even inspires a lingering fondness.
Three members of the Sri Lankan team have gone missing at the Commonwealth Games, the team has confirmed.
The Sri Lankan team says it has not been able to find two athletes and one official team.
Local news agencies in Sri Lanka are reporting the team’s chef de mission, retired army general Dampath Fernando, has now confiscated the passports for all remaining athletes and officials the country brought to Birmingham.
Sri Lankan team spokesperson Gobinath Sivarajah has told The Telegraph in India that Birmingham police are investigating the disappearance and have launched an official inquiry
“We have asked all athletes and officials to submit their passports to our respective venue officials in all the villages after the incident,” he said.
“The police are investigating and the three cannot cross the UK borders. What has happened is really unfortunate.”
The team has confirmed reports that the athletes involved are a wrestler, a judo athlete and a judo coach. The team says they have not been since Monday.
The judo and wrestling events are taking place at Coventry Arena, a 30-minute drive from Birmingham.
It is feared the three individuals do not want to return to Sri Lanka, which is facing the worst economic crisis in the country’s history.
Sri Lanka had picked a 161-member contingent, made up of 110 athletes and l51 officials.
The athletes and officials were granted standard 180-day visas by the British government for the event.
The scandal has overshadowed one of the country’s greatest athletics results after Yupun Abeykoon won the bronze medal in the men’s 100m at Alexander Stadium in a time of 10.14 on Thursday morning (AEST).
At the Gold Coast Games in 2018, a third of the Cameroon team went missing after the event was completed.
It was revealed the following year that 230 athletes and officials had made asylum claims to remain in Australia. 217 of those claims were rejected.
Sri Lanka is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. The economy has collapsed under the weight of $75 billion of debt.
A girl was shot Wednesday night in Towson, Baltimore County police said. *UPDATE* According to officials, the 8-year-old girl who was shot has been pronounced dead after being transported to an area hospital. Circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation.Police said they responded to a home in the 6300 block of Sherwood Road just before 9:30 pm Officers arrived and found the 8-year-old girl in the basement of the home critically injured.Video Above : Baltimore County police provide preliminary information on Wednesday’s shooting. Police said there is no threat to the community. This report will be updated.
TOWSON, Md.—
A girl was shot Wednesday night in Towson, Baltimore County police said.
*UPDATE* According to officials, the 8-year-old girl who was shot has been pronounced dead after being transported to an area hospital. Circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation.
Police said they responded to a home in the 6300 block of Sherwood Road just before 9:30 pm Officers arrived and found the 8-year-old girl in the basement of the home critically injured.
Video Above: Baltimore County police provide preliminary information on Wednesday’s shooting.
Samsung announced Wednesday that it’s bringing more than 250 games to the Samsung Gaming Hub through the Amazon Luna streaming-based gaming service. The company is making these titles available on its 2022 Samsung smart TVs and M-series smart monitors.
The Korean tech giant first announced the Samsung Gaming Hub at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year and began rolling it out to its 2022 smart TVs and smart monitors since June 30. The Tizen-powered software already has games available from services like Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google Stadia, and Utomik. With the addition of Amazon Luna, users now have access to more than 1,000 game titles. The Gaming Hub also offers players to connect their YouTube, Spotify, and Twitch accounts to access media during gameplay.
“Beginning today, Luna users can also link their profiles to the Samsung Gaming Hub and continue to play on Samsung’s 2022 television models. Using the Samsung Gaming Hub’s controller passthrough technology, gamers can choose to play their Amazon Luna titles with a Luna Controller or with any other supported Bluetooth controller,” Samsung said in a press release.
If you don’t have a Bluetooth controller, you can play games with your smartphone, too.
Amazon launched its cloud-based gaming service to US-based users in March, after testing it in smaller pools starting in September 2020. Prime subscribers have access to some free games every month through Prime Gaming Channel, but if they want more they can subscribe to the Retro Channel for classic games ,and channels from game studios like Jackbox and Ubisoft that cost anywhere from $4.99 to $17.99. Luna’s services are not limited to your TV, so you can also play these games on your phone, tablet, PC, or Mac as well.
Sunrise weatherman Sam Mac has shared live updates from a prenatal class his pregnant partner signed him up for.
Mac appeared wide-eyed in the clip and said he would “skip dinner” after the two-and-a-half-hour zoom class.
WATCH IN THE VIDEO ABOVE: Sam Mac jokes about the pressure to propose
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Mac and his partner Rebecca James announced in April that they were expecting their first child, due in September.
To make sure Mac was prepared for the upcoming birth, James enrolled him in a class, which he participated in on Wednesday.
“Big thanks to Bec for signing me up for this 2.5 hr pre natal zoom today,” he captioned the TikTok.
Sam Mac shares a TikTok of his prenatal class. Credit: TikTok
Later sharing the video on Instagram, he wrote, “Thank you darling @rebeccajames_stylist.”
Mac recorded himself listening to the session with “midwife Penny,” who gave instructions including, “little push, big push, little push, big push.”
Other comments heard from Penny included, “to stitch you up,” “the cervix is right up near your bum,” and “mucus plug can come out.”
“That will ripen the cervix like a piece of fruit. It’s done with a hook that’s about 30cm long it looks like a crochet hook,” the midwife added.
“Might skip dinner tonight,” Mac wrote on the video.
Commenting on the video posted on Instagram, James responded, “How amazing is midwife Penny though?”
Also to react were many of Mac’s Channel 7 colleagues.
“Fun times ahead!” news reader Sally Bowrey wrote.
Sam Mac on TikTok. Credit: TikTok
“It’s the mucus plug for me,” The Morning Show host Kylie Gillies added.
Meanwhile, other fans also reacted.
“This is probably the best pregnancy dad I’ve seen online,” one wrote.
“No one will ever convince me to go through pregnancy ever,” a second said.
Another commenter added: “Mate, I didn’t even do one. You’ll be right. Winging live crosses will hold you in good stead.”
Sam shares a preview of the prenatal zoom class. Credit: TikTok
#DaddyMac
Mac and James announced they were expecting a baby in April
“Wow! Mini Mac coming soon & Bec just ca n’t wipe the joy off her face de ella, ”Mac wrote to Instagram, followed by #DaddyMac.
James added: “Well this escalated. See you in September baby Mac”.
The couple also posted vision of the moment they shared the news with family and friends, as seen in the video below.
Sam Mac and Rebecca James announce they’re expecting their first child.
Sam Mac and Rebecca James announce they’re expecting their first child.
The video featured Mac’s parents and James’ brother, snowboarder Scotty James.
The baby is due in September.
relationship building
Mac and James made their relationship ‘”Instagram official” early in 2021, the weatherman sending fans into a frenzy when he shared a cozy photo.
In a lengthy caption, the Seven star revealed he met “Bec” after being “introduced on Instagram last year” by a mutual friend.
“Bec lives in Melb, and I’m in Syd, so the Victorian border restrictions meant it was illegal for us to meet in person,” he explained.
Sam Mac and Rebecca James. Credit: Instagram
“Here’s where it gets cool. We very quickly struck up a great friendship. Insta chats, phone calls, Friday zoom drinks, we spoke every single day for almost six months!”
Mac said it was “surreal” to finally meet James in person for a romantic dinner when border restrictions eased.
“By this stage I felt like I knew everything about her… except if she was interested in being more than friends,” he wrote.
“We knew each other so well, but also not at all.
“It’s not entirely relevant to the story but I want the fact that she was 24 minutes late to be on the record,” he joked.
The breakfast TV weatherman and Rebecca James celebrate the purchase of their first home. Credit: Instagram
The breakfast TV star added: “Eventually, over a few Harry Potter marathons & a glass or two of Zonzo, we discovered we were both feeling exactly the same.”
“We were just so cautious about ruining the friendship.”
In October, the couple announced they had purchased their first home together.
“’We bought a bloody house! In Sydney! Already drinking our way through the pain as we calculate the stamp duty #Pray4Us,” Sam captioned a photo on Instagram.
Sam Mac says Sunrise team pressing him to marry pregnant girlfriend.
Sam Mac says Sunrise team pressing him to marry pregnant girlfriend.
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Shocking new details have emerged as a father whose children were caught up in a terrifying crash at the Commonwealth Games speaks out for the first time.
The London velodrome was the scene of a horrific cycling accident last week that saw 15km scratch competitor Matt Walls fly over the fence and into the crowd.
Walls, Matt Bostock and Derek Gee were hospitalized while multiple other riders went down in the incident, which you can watch in the video above.
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The crash sparked serious concerns for spectators after several people, including children, were seen ducking for cover and cowering in fear.
It has now been revealed Walls’ bike landed where a five-year-old boy and another child had been sitting prior to moving up one row to see more of the track.
Several families were caught up in the accident. Credit: John Walton/AP
Hugh Colvin, the father of the five-year-old, and his wife Laura, who was not in attendance, say they regret sitting so close with children in tow, having been “completely unaware” fans could be in such significant danger.
“If we had known for a moment that there was a risk that a bike with an adult male going at that speed could come into contact with my seven-year-old daughter, my family would never have been there,” Laura told the BBC .
The Colvins said it had been difficult to look back at photos of the crash as they pieced together what had become a blur.
“It all happened so incredibly quickly at the speed the cyclists were going,” Hugh said.
“You can see the trajectory of the bike, it came through, grazed my daughter’s shoulder, and (in) one of the photos you can see we are obviously underneath the wheel.
“It must have been within centimetres, millimetres, of our heads.”
EVERYEVENT:Check out the full Commonwealth Games schedule
TALLY MEDAL:Every gold, silver and bronze at Birmingham 2022
LATEST RESULTS:Detailed breakdown of every event at the Games
Laura added: “What has been quite hard for us to get our head around is being able to see from the photographs that were taken of the incident exactly how close this came to being a complete catastrophe and how close our two younger children came to being seriously injured or killed.”
“That has been the main thing we’ve had to reflect on over the last few days,” she said.
The family spoke out after Matt Walls shared a video call with their seven-year-old daughter, which they say has helped her cope with the trauma.
Matt Walls of England (left) along with George Jackson of New Zealand and Joshua Duffy of Australia during a crash in the Men’s 15km Scratch Race on Day 3 of the XXII Commonwealth Games at the Lee Valley VeloPark in Birmingham, England, Sunday, July 31 , 2022. (AAP Image/Alex Broadway/SWPix.com) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY Credit: ALEX BROADWAY/AAPIMAGE
Laura said one of the adult friends who attended with the Colvins still needs surgery on a deep cut on his arm, something the hospital described as “being like a machete injury”.
“It’s been really difficult for him,” she said.
“In addition to the soft tissue and muscle injury he’s got a partially severed tendon in his arm, so it is the start of a long road to recovery for him.”
olympic legends call for immediate fix
England’s five-time Olympic champion Laura Kenny said the crash showed her sport had advanced to a point where governing bodies must now act on velodrome safety.
“I think the crashes are getting worse and it’s because the speeds are getting higher, the positions are getting more extreme,” Kenny said.
“At some point the UCI are going to have to put a cap on these positions. Maybe there should be screens because Matt should not have been able to go over the top and into the crowd – that’s pretty damn dangerous.
“Matt was laughing and making jokes with the paramedics, which is brilliant to hear, but if he’d not gone over, he would have done less damage and certainly done less damage to the little girl (in the crowd).”
In the video below: Cyclist run over in latest worrying Comm Games crash
Cyclist run over in horror Games crash
Cyclist run over in horror Games crash
Sir Chris Hoy acknowledged that “it might seem strange” that riders are able to fly over the fence.
“Personally I think it’s preventable if you put a plexiglass screen around like they do in ice hockey,” he told the BBC.
“Look at motorsport and its catch fencing and the lengths they go to protect the crowd and also the athletes.
“I didn’t want to see the video, I have seen a shot of it, and it was horrendous to see but on the whole it’s a very safe sport.
“All you can do is learn from mistakes and think: how can we make the velodrome safer for athletes and spectators?
“I hope the people in power look at this and think something really has to be done before something genuinely serious happens in the future.”
Just like Tokyo 2020 on Seven, there will be one destination to watch every epic feat, every medal moment, every record attempt and every inspiring turn from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
7plus is the only place to watch up to 30 live and replay channels of sport, see what’s on when, keep up to date with the medal tally, create a watchlist to follow your favorite events and catch up on highlights.
Jurors from the sentencing portion of the trial for the gunman who killed 17 people are expected to visit the scene of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s 1200 building in Parkland, Florida, on Thursday.
The building on the school’s campus has remained sealed since the February 2018 shooting to preserve it for the trial. A new building that opened in 2020 has taken on the role of the structure, which officials have said will be torn down.
The visit is meant to help jurors analyze the evidence presented in the trial so far, Judge Elizabeth Scherer explained.
The judge instructed jurors Wednesday to “avoid touching, manipulating or moving anything.” She also told them to explore the scene on their own and at their own pace, moving as a group from floor to floor.
“Nothing will be explained or pointed out to you,” the judge’s instructions said. Jurors have also been told to avoid speaking to anyone until the viewing is complete.
Jurors will not be allowed to have a smart phone, smart watch or any type of camera, during the jury view. In court, attorneys encouraged the judge to ask jurors to wear closed-toe shoes because they could encounter glass on the floor.
The current phase of the trial is to determine gunman Nikolas Cruz’s sentence: Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, while Cruz’s defense attorneys are asking the jury for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. To recommend a death sentence, jurors must be unanimous. If they do so, the judge could choose to follow the recommendation or sentence Cruz to life instead.
Cruz is not expected to be at the crime scene.
Following the visit, some impact statements are expected in court, the judge said.
Wednesday was the third day of victim impact testimony in the trial of Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the shooting.
Much of the testimony in the Broward County court – particularly from the parents of the 14 students killed – has focused on all the things the victims and their families will never get to do and the irreparable damage to their everyday lives.
“Our family is broken. There is this constant emptiness,” said Max Schachter, the father of 14-year-old Alex, who loved chocolate chip cookies, playing the trombone and video games.
“I feel I can’t truly be happy if I smile,” Schachter said Wednesday. “I know that behind that smile is the sharp realization that part of me will always be sad and miserable because Alex isn’t here.”
The loss of her daughter Meadow Pollack, 18, has “destroyed” Shara Kaplan’s life, she told the jury Tuesday, “and my capability of ever living a productive existence.” To articulate how her daughter’s death de ella impacted her de ella, she said, she would have to rip out her heart de ella and show them how it had shattered into a million pieces.
And the Hoyer family will never be the same. “We were a family unit of five always trying to fit into a world set up for even numbers,” said Tom Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son Luke – the youngest of three – was killed. “Two-, four-, six-seat tables in a restaurant. Two-, four-, six-ticket packages to events. Things like that.”
But the Hoyers are no longer a family of five, and “never again will the world feel right, now that we’re a family of four,” Hoyer said.
“When Luke died something went missing in me,” he said. “And I’ll never, never get over that feeling.”
To make their sentencing decision, jurors will hear prosecutors and defense attorneys argue aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances – reasons Cruz should or should not be executed.
The victim impact statements add another layer, giving the families and friends of the victims their own day in court, though the judge told the jury the statements are not meant to be weighed as aggravating factors.
Disney+ held its Television Critics Association presentation today with a couple of small announcements made.
The nine-episode comedy “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” will be delayed a day, the series now releasing on August 18th as the streamer shifts some of its series launches from Wednesday to Thursday.
Kat Coiro teased Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock role in the series, saying: “To watch Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters match wits is something I think people are going to love. Charlie & Tatiana have great chemistry, its got the tone of a Howard Hawks movie.”
Not all series will be hitting Thursdays as the second season of “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” has locked down a Wednesday, September 28th premiere date. Josh Duhamel joins the series alongside Lauren Graham.
The streamer also set a September 21st release date for “Super/Natural,” the new National Geographic series about “the secret powers and super senses of the world’s most extraordinary animals.” That series is executive produced by James Cameron and narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.
The brutal yet pleasant rivalry between Duncan Scott and Tom Dean gained another chapter on the very last day of swimming at the Sandwell Aquatics Center as Scott hung onto his lead during a dramatic climax to the 200m individual medley, eventually seeing off a surging Dean to win his second gold medal and fifth medal of the Games.
Another gold medal is further evidence that Scott stands at the peak of his powers. Over the past 13 months, he has won two individual Olympic silver medals, four overall, and now six medals at the Commonwealth Games.
His haul in Birmingham includes another gold medal in the 200m freestyle, where he and Dean also faced off, with Scott edging him out. Scott, 25, is Scotland’s most decorated Commonwealth athlete of all time with 12 medals overall.
Having trailed in third place after the opening butterfly lap, Scott tore through the field on the backstroke lap to establish a half-second lead after 100m. Despite Scott not letting up, Dean spent the final freestyle lap furiously chasing Scott down. He very nearly did but Scott held on to win with a Games record time of 1:56.88, just 0.13 ahead of Dean.
“Rivalries or competition in general gets the best out of us. I say that for myself and I can say that for Deano, we love a race,” said Scott in a joint interview with Dean to the BBC. “Whether it’s with each other or anything from Olympic Games, World Champs or Commonwealth Games, we love the atmosphere, we love finals. We love getting in amongst it and we love racing each other as well because it gets the best out of each other.”
This has been no deficient debut Commonwealth Games for Dean, whose second place finish yielded his sixth silver medal of the event. After winning two gold medals in a stunning breakout Olympics last year and then three bronze medals at the World Championships this year, the 22-year-old has further established himself as one of the premier swimmers of his generation.
Dean celebrates after winning the men’s 4x100m medley final with England. Photograph: Dave Hunt/EPA
After the silence of the empty venues at the Tokyo Olympics, it is also his first experience of a major international Games with a crowd, something he has lapped up throughout. “What a great week,” he said. “Dunc got the better of me again on this one tonight, but pushing each other on, that’s what’s all about. And I can’t get enough of this crowd. My coach, Dave, says it’s like a drug. It just gets you going. It’s absolutely incredible.”
In the penultimate race of the event, Dean finally clinched his first Commonwealth gold medal, anchoring the England team in the final leg of the 4x100m medley relay as they barely held off Australia to win gold.
Over the past eight years, one of the constant sights in Commonwealth Games swimming has been the excellence of Ben Proud, who broke through on to the world stage aged 19 in Glasgow 2014 and quickly established himself at the top of the sport. He continued his sprinting dominance over all rivals by winning his third consecutive gold medal in the 50m freestyle. It is his second gold medal for him in Birmingham, having also won the 50m butterfly title.
Now 27 years old, Proud is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career after also winning 50m freestyle gold at the World Championships in June. The victory takes Proud’s medal haul to two golds this year in Birmingham and eight Commonwealth Games medals overall. Afterwards, Proud saluted his teammate, Lewis Burras, who finished in second place.
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“For me, that’s a really big achievement,” said Proud. “To be able to say I’ve been here for years consistently at the top is brilliant. I held off the young guns for one more year. It’s a fantastic job from Lewis, getting a silver medal. Never thought I’d have an English guy with me, but today’s the day. A massive swim.”
Burras, 22, clinched his first ever individual medal to secure England’s first swimming 1-2 of the event with his first individual medal. As he took it all in, he shook his head: “To stand on the podium with this guy, 12 year old me is going crazy,” he said.
