Swimming: Hackett underlines golden reputation

Australia's Grant Hackett celebrates his gold medal swim in the 1500m freestyle final. Picture / Reuters

MONTREAL - Grant Hackett finished the 11th world championships as he started them, winning a gold medal to enhance his reputation as the greatest long-distance swimmer.

The Australian toyed with his rivals in the final session of competition yesterday, to capture the 1500m freestyle and become the first swimmer to win the same event four times, eight days after he won his first 400m freestyle gold.

Hacket, 25, a law student, also became the first to win seven career individual world titles, surpassing the previous record of six he shared with compatriot Ian Thorpe and American Michael Phelps, and finished the championships with three golds after he also shattered Thorpe's 800m world record.

Phelps won his fifth gold without even getting wet yesterday when the United States took out the men's 4x100m medley relay. Phelps was not selected in the team but got a medal because he swam in the heats.

American teenager Katie Hoff struck gold for the third time when she won the 400m individual medley to ensure the US topped the medals table with 15 golds.

Australia, who dominated the women's events, with 10 titles, won three golds yesterday to finish second, with 13 golds, while Zimbabwe, South Africa, France and Poland finished tied for third with two each.

Australia's Jade Edmistone set the ninth world record of the championships to win the 50m breaststroke, and compatriot Libby Lenton won the 50m freestyle to claim her first individual world title after winning two relays.

Laszlo Cseh, of Hungary, capitalised on Phelps' decision to skip the 400m individual medley to win in 4m 9.63s.

Aristeidis Grigoriadis became the first Greek to win a world title with victory in the 50m backstroke, snatching the gold in 24.95s.

Australia's Matt Welsh finished second in 24.99s and Liam Tancock, of Britain, was third in 25.02s.

Hackett, awarded the Fina Trophy for the best male swimmer of the championships, led all the way to win in a time of 14m 42.58s and extend his unbeaten record in the event since 1996.

American Larsen Jenson finished second in 14m 47.58s, and David Davies, of Britain, was third in 14m 48.11s, in a repeat of the placings at last year's Athens Olympics.

"It is an awesome feeling to be able to achieve something like that and be the first person in history to do it," Hackett said. "It is something that I have been focusing on and it's really satisfying to do it."

Edmistone won her first gold in a time of 30.45s to shave 0.12s off the 30.57s set by Zoe Baker, then competing for Britain but now for New Zealand, at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.

US teenager Jessica Hardy, who set the 100m breaststroke world record last week, finished second in 30.85s and Brooke Hanson, of Australia, was third in 30.89s.

Lenton won the 50m freestyle after recovering from a slow start to touch in 24.59s, with less than 1s separating the eight finalists.

Cseh took the lead after the first 75m of his race and pulled away to take the medley gold and add the world title to his European crown.

Hoff, 16, confirmed her status as the new big name of women's swimming with a runaway victory in the 400m medley in a time of 4m 36.07s to add to the 200m medley and 4x200m relay golds.

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry finished second to end with two golds and two silvers. She single-handedly helped her troubled African nation finish third on the medals table and earned herself the Fina Trophy for the best female swimmer.

"I hope I am giving people at home the hope to follow their dreams and do things they think and believe they can achieve because it is very possible," she said.

Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Jason Lezak won the men's 4x100m medley relay in a time of 3m 31.85s. Peirsol and Hansen both finished with three gold medals each after winning the 100m-200m doubles in backstroke and breaststroke respectively.

- REUTERS