Host nation Australia have retained their men's 4x100m freestyle gold at the Commonwealth Games, beating England and Scotland to the top prize at the Optus Aquatics Centre on the Gold Coast this evening.

Home favourites Jack Cartwright (47.71s), James Magnussen (48.09s) and Kyle Chalmers (48.25s) produced the three fastest legs of the entire race in final three legs for Australia to pull them clear of the chasing pack.

Duncan Scott had given Scotland the lead at the first changeover, but their middle legs saw them fall out of gold-medal contention and they were eventually forced to settle for bronze.

England upgraded their bronze medal from four years ago by finishing second, with Ben Proud shaking off the disappointment of being disqualified from his 50m butterfly heat to help his country to the silver medal.

James Guy brought the relay home to hold off the challenge from Scotland, while South Africa - silver medallists four years ago - faded away after Chad le Clos had dragged them into medal contention in leg two, eventually finishing behind New Zealand and Canada in sixth place.

The result capped a memorable night in the pool for the hosts as they claimed a sixth gold medal, including victories in each of the final five medal races of day two's evening session.