Team England's Ben Proud has successfully defended his 50m freestyle title at the Commonwealth Games.

The 23-year-old suffered heartbreak on the opening day of competition last week when he was disqualified from the 50m butterfly event, but he bounced back with an assured victory in the pool tonight.

Proud set a new Games record of 21.30 seconds during qualifying yesterday and came within a whisker of that again tonight as he logged 21.35 seconds in the final to clinch gold.

South Africa's Bradley Tandy was Proud's nearest competitor on 21.81 seconds, while Australia's Cameron McEvoy took bronze with 21.90 seconds.

Proud's teammate David Cumberlidge almost made it onto the podium but had to settle for fourth place with a time of 22 seconds flat, while the other English competitor, 19-year-old Thomas Fannon, brought up the rear with 22.25 seconds.