Hackett savours slice of history
GRANT Hackett finished the world swimming championships as he started them on today - with a victory.
The 25-year-old Australia captain earned an unprecedented fourth straight title in the 1500m freestyle, maintaining an unbeaten run that has lasted since 1996.
It was his third gold medal of the games, and Hackett admitted it was the hardest.
“I wanted to do a personal best, but tonight I didn’t feel as good,” said the swimmer, who had reached a personal milestone when he eclipsed teammate Ian Thorpe’s world record in winning the 800m freestyle.
But his time of 14min 42.58sec, while outside his world record of 14min 34.56sec, was still his third-fastest ever and the fourth-fastest in history.
“At the end of a big week like this, it’s great,” said Hackett, who earned top male swimmer of the meet honours.
Hackett also won the 400m freestyle, opening his championships with a victory in an event in which American star Michael Phelps failed to qualify.
It was a morale booster for the week as Hackett, captaining an Aussie squad feeling the absence of superstar Thorpe, made good on his vow to lead from the front.
He took silver in the 200m free behind Phelps and bronze in the 4×200m free - posting the fastest leg of anyone in that relay final.
In the course of the week Hackett became the most-decorated swimmer in world championships history with 17 medals overall, including 10 golds.
“It has been great,” Hackett said. “It felt easy every day except today, to be honest.
“For me to break a world record here, of course of Ian’s, and to be swimming those sorts of times day in day out, it’s certainly one of those career moments or meets that you savour.”
Hackett’s 1500m win capped a sparkling day for Australia’s swimmers. Libby Lenton won the 50m freestyle gold in a time of 24.59sec, with fellow Australian Alice Mills finishing in fifth place in 25.02sec.
Earlier, Australian Jade Edmistone broke the world record in the non-Olympic 50m breaststroke with a time of 30.45sec to win the gold medal.
She lowered British-turned-Kiwi swimmer Zoe Baker’s record by 0.12sec, while fellow Aussie Brooke Hanson came third in a time of 30.89sec.
Matt Welsh was narrowly pipped for gold in the men’s 50m breaststroke final, coming home just behind Aristeidis Grigoriadis of Greece to take the silver medal.
Grigoriadis won the event in a time 24.95sec after a close finish in which the first six swimmers were separated by less than half a second.
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