Commonwealth Games: Aimee Willmott, James Wilby and Max Whitlock get England off to golden start Down Under

Scotland had been favoured to start the Games with two swimming golds but Willmott set the tone by upsetting long-time rival Hannah Miley

Aimee Willmott celebrates winning the Women's 400m Individual Medley Final (Getty)

Aimee Willmott and James Wilby upset their Scottish rivals in the pool while Max Whitlock brought home the gold in the men's team gymnastics as England made a successful start to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Willmott reversed her silver medal placing behind Hannah Miley in Glasgow four years ago to clinch victory in the 400 metres individual medley and deny the Scot a third straight gold in the event.

And Wilby followed suit over a surging 25m to claim men's 200m breaststroke gold ahead of Glasgow champion and favourite Ross Murdoch.

Double Olympic champion Whitlock sat out the first five of seven apparatus before stepping up to nail his floor and pommel routines and take gold alongside team-mates Nile Wilson, Courtney Tulloch, James Hall and Dominick Cunningham.

Scotland had been favoured to start the Games with two swimming golds but Willmott set the tone by upsetting her long-time rival.

"I finish second pretty much every time, and I have raced against Hannah so many times and last time I was second," Willmott said.

"I knew this time I could have it in me if I just swam the race a little bit better. And I think that really paid off."

England's James Guy took 400m freestyle bronze and the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team finished third.

There were two other golds in the pool for England, for Paralympic champion Ellie Robinson in the women's S7 50m butterfly and Tom Hamer in the men's S14 200m freestyle.

Whitlock's belated impact was hardly required by a dominant England gymnastics team, who totalled 258.950 ahead of second-placed Canada with the Scotland team of Frank Baines, Hamish Carter, Kelvin Cham, Dan Purvis and David Weir taking bronze.

Whitlock said: "It was quite a different experience for me dropping to two pieces and then having to wait for the other guys.

"It was difficult but it's something I've learned from this competition. The team did incredibly well and I'm really pleased with what we've done."


 Whitlock's belated impact was hardly required by a dominant England gymnastics team 
 (PA)

England picked up silver medals in the men's team pursuit and men's team sprint as the track cycling got under way at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane.

Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield, Oliver Wood and Kian Emadi could have no complaints about being beaten to gold by Australia in the team pursuit as the host nation's quartet of Leigh Howard, Sam Welsford, Kelland O'Brien and Alex Porter broke Great Britain's world record from Rio with a stunning time of three minutes 49.804 seconds.

Philip Hindes, Joe Truman and Ryan Owens followed up with silver in the team sprint as New Zealand took gold in a time of 42.877 seconds.

Katy Marchant shook off illness to collect women's team sprint bronze alongside Lauren Bate, edging Wales' pair Rachel James and Eleanor Coster into fourth place.

Scotland's Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham broke their own Commonwealth record to win the blind and visually impaired men's time trial in 1:00.065, while England's Sophie Turnbull and Helen Scott won the blind and visually impaired women's sprint after breaking the world record in qualifying.

James Guy with his bronze medal on the podium (Getty)

There was a shock for England's all-conquering Brownlee brothers in the men's triathlon as they fell away on the run leaving Scottish bronze medallist Marc Austin as the best-placed Briton.

Jonny finished seventh and injury-hit Alistair fell away to 10th as South Africa's Henri Schoeman claimed gold with Australia's Jacob Birtwhistle second ahead of Austin.

Eleven-year-old Wales table tennis prodigy Anna Hursey won her first match in the doubles alongside Charlotte Carey, the pair triumphing 3-2 over India's Madhurika Patkar and Mouma Das.

PA