New Delhi:
South Africa's Chad Le Clos struck gold in the Commonwealth pool on Monday in a 200m butterfly race blown wide open by the absence of world number two Nick D'Arcy who failed to qualify.
Le Clos, 18, overtook England's Michael Rock, who led at 100m and 150m, to stretch away for his country's first gold in the pool in New Delhi in a new Games record of 1:56.48.
Rock, 23, held on for silver while Canada's Stefan Hirniak got bronze.
D'Arcy was firm favourite going into the competition after he came second to US legend Michael Phelps in the Pan Pacific championships in August.
But he missed out on the final by just six-hundredths of a second.
D'Arcy was banned from the Australia team after a conviction for assaulting a fellow swimmer before the last Olympics in 2008. He sat out Beijing and last year's World Championships in Rome.
Rock's silver is the 100th for England's Commonwealth Games Association. Only Australia (169) and Canada (109) have claimed more silver medals in swimming at the Commonwealth Games.
But the student from Stockport in northwest England, blamed the books for coming second.
"I've just finished my degree at university and took a few weeks out of swimming for my exams. It's affected my fitness and that's what happened in the last 15 metres."