On an emotional day for the host nation, their under-fire men's swimming team finally managed to crack gold at the very last attempt.

Just hours earlier, Australia's road race cycling team had tearfully dedicated gold to a colleague killed in a road accident last year.

Elsewhere, England won three athletics golds while Canada dominated the gymnastics.

But it was in the pool where the drama was played out.

The team of Sophie Edington, Jones, Jessicah Schipper and Lenton set a new women's 4x100m medley world record of 3:56.30, more than a second quicker than the old mark.

It was the second world record of the Games meet following Jones's in the 100m breaststroke final.

It was also Jones's fourth gold of the meet and Lenton's fifth.

"A huge surge of relief came over me, the meet's finally over and to finish on such a high was very special," said Lenton.

An ear-splitting roar acclaimed the Australian men's victory over England and Scotland in a Games record 3:36.40 in their medley relay - the first Australian men's gold in the 41-event programme.

The victory meant the Australian men's team avoided the ignominy of going through the programme without winning gold for the first time in the 76-year history of the Games.

David Davies claimed Wales' first gold in the 1500m freestyle, the 21-year-old ending a 52-year Australian Games' domination of the 30-lap marathon.

Schipper won the 200m butterfly to clinch the butterfly double while Edington grabbed the individual medley double with her 400m win.

Michael Brown broke an eight-year drought for Canada at a major international swimming meet with gold in the 200m breaststroke while South Africa's Roland Schoeman won his third gold with victory in the men's 50m freestyle.

At the MCG, England enjoyed triple track and field gold with Dean Macey winning the decathlon, Christine Ohuruogu stunning world and Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling to win the 400m and Lisa Dobriskey capturing the 1500m title.

South Africa's Elizna Naude won the women's discus to give her country their third gold of the competition and Kenya's Lucy Wangui took the 10,000m.

Jamaica's 110m hurdler Maurice Wignall took gold while his compatriot Trecia Williams triumphed in the triple jump.

In cycling, Oenone Wood led home a time-trial cleansweep for Australia ahead of Kathryn Watt and Olympic champion Sara Carrigan.

The three paid tribute to teammate Amy Gillett, killed in a training accident in Germany last year, who would have been competing in the event.

"Amy should have been here today and it's really sad that she wasn't. All we can do is continue to ride and take motivation from the fact that she was such a fantastic friend to us all," said Wood.

Nathan O'Neill won the men's event.

Australian swimmers Ian Thorpe and Susie O'Neill hold the record of six gold medals each at a Commonwealth Games.

"I am enjoying every moment of it. The confidence goes up after every event," said the 36-year-old Jung

Gagan Narang continued India's domination on the ranges by winning the men's 10m Air Rifle final.

Lalita Yauhleuskaya of Australia and Diane Swanton of South Africa halted the Indian march by winning the women's 25m Pistol and Trap titles respectively.

Australia also swept the two weightlifting golds with Aleksan Karapetyan taking the men's 94kg gold and Deborah Lovely the women's 75kg.

Canada grabbed three gymnastics golds on offer to equal the host nation's overall haul with six apiece.