Dubai is known for its gold, and when it comes to short course swimming so too is Felicity Galvez.

A dual gold medal winner at the 2008 World Short Course championships, Galvez had to wait until the final night of competition for her first, and Australia’s first gold medal, at this year’s 2010 FINA World Short Course Championships in Dubai.

Missing out in the 50m butterfly by just 0.01 of a second for silver, Galvez used that disappointment to put together four perfect laps and a new Commonwealth and championship record time of 55.43 to win gold in the 100m butterfly.

Up against Swedish rival Therese Alshammar (55.73) who won silver, Galvez said the 100 was always the one she wanted, and she had to wait until the end of the meet to get it.

“It would have been nice to go under the world record which is kind of what I was thinking about coming into the meet, but I can’t complain with the gold medal that I wanted,” said Galvez.

“I had some time to think this morning and knew that we hadn’t won a gold medal yet and thought it would be good to be the person who brings home the gold medal for Australia, and I’m honoured that I’ve done that for my country.”

“I kind of put in my mind that she (Alshammar) gets the 50m gold, but I deserve the 100 because I’ve worked for this one a lot more than I have for the 50.”

Rachel Goh opened Australia’s medal count on the final night of competition with silver in the 50m backstroke missing out to China’s Jing Zhao in the two lap splash and dash.

Goh hit the wall in a personal best time of 26.54, while Zhao won in a new championship record time of 26.27.  For Goh, it was her second medal of the meet after picking up a bronze medal in the medley relay.

“After missing out in 2008 I came here wanting to win an individual medal and to do that is a really good feeling,” said the Victorian.

“We haven’t done a lot of short course training but this has really given me some confidence.  Hopefully now I can improve even more and compete with the girls over the long course at our Trials (Telstra Australian Championships) in April.”

Australia’s third individual medal of the night went to Queenslander Kylie Palmer  who swam a personal best and new Commonwealth record time of 1:52.96 to win bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle.

The 20-year-old, who was defending her title from 2008, was out raced by Frenchwoman Camille Muffat who won in a championship record time of 1:52.29 from the USA’s Katie Hoff (1:52.91)

The final event of the night and championships saw the men’s medley relay team of Ben Treffers, Brenton Rickard, Geoff Huegill and Matt Abood finish fifth overall in a new Australian record time of 3:24.46.  The four took more than three seconds off the previous mark of 3:27.51 set in Manchester in 2008.

In the men’s 100m freestyle, Matthew Abood was just 0.05 of a second off winning bronze with a seasons-best 46.40.  The Australian record holder was fifth at the halfway mark, and fifth at the wall watching on as Cesar Cielo Filho celebrated his championship record swim of 45.74 for gold.

Eighteen-year-old Kenneth To was another to finish 5th in a final of the men’s 100m IM, with world record holder Ryan Lochte finishing the meet with five individual gold medals and a new championship record time of 50.86. To covered his four strokes and four laps in 53.20 and will only learn from the experience of racing alongside someone like Lochte.

In the men’s 200m butterfly Chris Wright finished fourth in 1:51.85 while Jayden Hadler tied for seventh in 1:53.61.

Swimming Australia